Trapped in Cyberspace
by KaibaGirl007
Summary: Based towards the end of the third season, kind of a 'what if' alternate ending for the Kaibas. “That’s what happens when you challenge someone who’s superior to you in every way."
1. Chapter 1

**I own no rights to anything 'cause I'm poor :P**

**This fic is based towards the end of the thrid season and is a kind of 'what if' alternate ending.**

**Most of this chapter is a write up of episode 121 with some teeny changes as it starts off my story.**

**Chapter One**

The Blue Eyes White Dragon materialised out of its card and launched straight into an attack as Kaiba had commanded it to do so. With its mouth opened wide the dragon shoot a powerful blast across the duel arena and destroyed the weakened opponent which it had been summoned to face. Now with the Exodia Necross defeated it had brought victory once more to its master and faded from the arena to return and lie within the card once more.

"You lose, stepfather." Kaiba stared across to where Gozaburo stood defeated opposite him.

"How could I lose this?" The old man said in disbelief as he had just failed to win control of his stepson's body to escape from the virtual world that he had been residing in since his death.

"That's what happens when you challenge someone who's superior to you in everyway."

"I'll show you who's superior, by taking over your body Seto." Gozaburo roared as he morphed into a red flame monster. There was no way that he was going to let the chance of returning to the real world be taken away from him so easily, especially by the smug boy who had brought about his downfall.

"Wait!" Kaiba exclaimed at seeing the huge monstrous hand reach for him. "What about our agreement?" He was about to take a step backwards before he remembered that he was suspended high in the air on the duelling platform.

"Sorry, our agreement is off." The monster bellowed as he swung at his victim who had nowhere to run. The red fiery hand passed right through Kaiba who was left feeling dizzy and breathless from the attack.

"Huh?" The platform began to move and Kaiba turned to see his rival at the controls which had moved him further away from the monster which hadn't yet struck out again as it remained where it was and roared. "Yugi?"

"Jump Kaiba!" The spiky haired boy ordered as he saw the monster suddenly lunge itself at the duel platform and hit it just a split second after the CEO had leapt to the safety of the ledge and landed right in front of him. Together they quickly raced out of the building as the monster continued after them. "Hurry, this thing's going to shut down any second."

They'd made it onto the roof and heard Noah's voice instruct them to head for the arcades to be able to leave the virtual world before the programme self destructed. Kaiba was the first to stop at the roof's edge as he fearfully looked down. "Oh no, it's a dead end." Yugi pointed out the obvious as the monster loomed right behind them.

"Jump now!" Noah's voice sounded out to them.

"Forget it." Kaiba said angrily refusing to leap off the building.

"We have to trust him." Yugi said as he did as Noah had ordered and leapt over the edge of the building with Kaiba shortly behind him as the monster continued after them. A bright light appeared as the two rivals were in freefall. "Look, Noah opened another exit."

"Nooooo!" the monster bellowed as it watched the two boys escape from him as they entered the light.

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Kaiba's eyes opened as he was laid inside one of the capsule pods where their bodies had been taken to. The lid lifted away from him so that he could get up and out of it. "It's about time."

"We're back in the real world." Yugi got out from his pod too.

"Mokuba!" Kaiba caught sight of his younger brother still encased in his pod. "He's still back there. Mokuba wake up, Mokuba. Open your eyes!"

The younger brother's eyes flew open as he saw his big brother standing over him. "Seto, Noah's still inside." He exclaimed, hoping that there was some part of his brother's heart that would decide to help the stepbrother.

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Back in the virtual world, after saying his goodbyes to Mokuba, Noah returned to find the monster that his father had become still stood on the rooftop. "I'll escape, even without a body." The monster said to himself. "I can upload my mind onto another network."

"Not a chance."

"You!" The monster spun around to glare dangerously at Noah.

"I've sealed off all the exits so there's no way you can escape." He wasn't going to let his father continue to chase after his two stepbrothers and would keep him held in the virtual world until their data had been destroyed so that the two of them could finally 'die' and rest in peace. "I'm afraid it's all over for you."

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Yugi, Kaiba and Mokuba raced through the gigantic vessel as they headed for the KC airship where the others were waiting for them. The voice of the security system repeatedly warned them of the self destruction and continued to advise them to evacuate immediately.

"Why did Noah have to go back to that place guys?" Mokuba asked as the three of them ran through the corridors. He had truly hoped that his brother would help Noah; after all he too was a victim of their stepfather, though he should have known better than to ask, especially after some of the things that Noah had just put them through before he had a change of heart about what he had done and decided to help them. "It's not fair."

Despite his brother's whining, Kaiba didn't say a word as he didn't care about the boy trapped within the virtual world. He was free from that place which was all that mattered to him.

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"I can not be stopped." The red flame monster now had Noah in his grasp as he angrily demanded answers from the boy. "What makes you think that you can keep me here?" The image of Noah flickered in the monster's clenched hand and disappeared as the boy reappeared behind him. "Huh?"

"I can control this place as well." Noah told his father who had clearly forgotten that he had spent many years mastering the way to manipulate the world he was in. For one last time he wanted to see his father's true form and closed his eyes as he focused on removing the cloaking programme that had been used to shield Gozaburo.

As Noah broke down the computer script that enabled the disguise to work, he began to sense that something was wrong as his father's data that he was familiar with wasn't what was being hidden by the monster. He opened his eyes and was shocked to see the face of his stepbrother glaring angrily at him. "Seto?"

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Kaiba Craft Three hovered above the deck as it was ready for taking off but still there was no sign of the three missing friends. Joey and Duke stood right on the edge of the lowered down ramp as they craned their necks looking for Yugi and the two Kaiba brothers. "Hold on, here they come!" Joey exclaimed suddenly as he saw the group running towards them with Kaiba in the lead.

"Hurry up guys, let's go." Duke shouted to try and get them to move faster as the ship would be destroyed any moment now.

"You can make it" Tea joined in urging them on.

"Pick up the pace you guys, you're almost here." Joey leaned as far as he could to try and help his friends get on board. "We've got ya."

"Let's go." Tristan shouted as he held on to the aircraft and linked his arm with Joey's so that the blonde could reach down further from the ramp to help their friends climb onboard.

Duke was also ready to help them up as the distance between the deck and the ramp grew bigger. "Grab on."

"Hurry." Joey yelled not wanting to leave a single one of them behind.

"I'm not gonna make it." Mokuba cried as he stumbled and struggled to keep up with Yugi and his brother.

Kaiba's eyes glanced backwards towards Mokuba, and as much as Gozaburo wanted to leave the boy, he knew that it was something that Seto would never do under any circumstance, to do so would most definitely blow his cover, so he slowed his pace to be able to fall back alongside the smaller boy. "Guess again." He said as he gripped hold of Mokuba's clothing to raise him off the ground and throw him onto the ramp. "Catch."

Mokuba collided with Duke, but at least he was safe, and then watched as his brother took one huge striding jump and landed at the top of the ramp. He let out a sigh of relief that he hadn't been parted from the one he loved most as he wouldn't be able to bare losing two brother's in one day.

The ramp began to close as Joey swiftly pulled Yugi on board and Gozaburo took one final glance back towards the doomed ship._ Goodbye boys._ His mind sneered, and knowing that he'd come too far now with his 'borrowed' body and second chance of life, he wasn't going to let them be taken away from him so swiftly headed for the control room to make sure that the airship would be clear from the vessel as it began to explode from the missile's impact.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thankies :) Okay here we go ...  
**

**Chapter Two**

Noah's eyes were still wide from the shocking discovery he had just made as Seto forcefully took hold and shook him violently. "You two had this planned all along didn't you?"

"No." The green haired boy answered truthfully and shook his head as he still tried to make sense of what had happened. It had been Seto who he had seen leave the virtual world with Yugi, not his father. "I swear that I'm just as clueless about this as you are."

"I don't believe you." Seto hissed as he hatefully glared down at the frightened stepbrother. If Noah hadn't of already been dead, he would of gladly made sure that the boy paid the ultimate price for everything he had done to him and Mokuba, but right now the only thing he could think about was taking his body back from Gozaburo. "Tell me how to escape from here."

"I don't have time to explain, but I'll try to get us both out of here." The missile would be striking the ship any moment now and it would be only seconds after that when the virtual world they were in would no longer exist.

Noah closed his eyes to focus his mind on the computer programme and find the link it had made to bring Kaiba Craft Three into landing, but his concentration was broken as Seto continued to shake him. "I didn't say anything about you tagging along."

"Fine!" Noah snapped angrily as he reopened his eyes to stare at the ungrateful CEO. He was prepared to help Seto of his own freewill but wasn't prepared to be forced into doing so in this angry manner, he'd suffered enough of that already. "You think you're so smart, _you_ can save yourself, _Seto_."

The firm grip that Seto had on Noah disappeared as he let go of the younger boy who was being stubborn in a situation where they didn't have time to spare. If only he knew how his two step relatives had manipulated and controlled the world they were in then Seto would have continued on his own without the green haired boy, but since Noah was the one with that knowledge then he'd have to keep him around for a little while longer. "If you double cross me _Noah_, I'll make sure that it is the last thing you ever do." He growled threateningly.

"Understood." Noah nodded in reply, though he hadn't been bothered about if Seto let him stay with him or not as he had already decided his own fate beforehand and was merely helping his stepbrother, like he had done with Mokuba a short while earlier, as his way of apologising for what he had put the two brothers through. "You better hold on to me again so that I can transfer you across with me to your airship."

Seto glared at Noah who had his eyes closed. Right now it was his stepbrother who held all the power but he'd soon change that with a little more time. Reluctantly he held the boy closer to himself.

It hadn't taken long for Noah to access the linkup to the airship, but if they were going to survive there then they'd have to go deeper into the system beyond the navigation controls and as he tried to proceed further was stopped by Kaiba Corporation's high security firewalls. "Seto, I need to know your password if we're to leave this place." There was no reply and Noah asked again for his stepbrother's co-operation. "_Please_, I need to know your password."

The virtual world began to shake and flicker as the missile had hit the ship. Seto glanced around from the rooftop and could see the city beginning to break down into pixels. This was it for him, the end, and all because he was too proud to reveal the password for his own security systems. He closed his eyes and though of Mokuba giving him the strength he needed to fight on. "Tea Gardner." He grumbled to Noah.

"We're in!" Noah exclaimed once the name had been accepted as the password he had needed. He concentrated hard to make sure all of his and Seto's data was transferred across and then opened his eyes to find himself standing in the blank space where they had fled to. "It's okay, we're safe, you can open your eyes now." He laughed as he looked up and saw Seto standing with his eyes tightly scrunched together.

His grip on the younger boy was released as Seto opened his eyes and glared loathingly at Noah. It was thanks to his stepbrother that he had escaped from the destructing programme but now that he was able to take his time a bit more to learn out how to control and 'live' inside cyberspace he had no more use for the boy.

"Why would the name of one of your rival's friends be your password?" Noah asked curiously.

Anger flashed in Seto's eyes from hearing the question. He owed nobody any explanations and most definitely wasn't going to give Noah one either. "You tell anyone my password and you'll deeply regret it." With a swing of his arm he pushed Noah away from him causing the boy to fall to the ground.

"Look around us Seto, who am I possibly going to tell?" Noah exclaimed as he landed hard on his butt and stared up at the towering figure, both of them surrounded by nothing but darkness. He hated the way that his stepbrother had threatened him twice within the extremely short time period that they had been stuck together, and it reminded him greatly of his father. A smirk appeared on Noah's lips as he realised that Seto must have had feelings for the female friend of his rival. "But if you continue to treat me badly, just like our father……"

"How dare you compare me to Gozaburo!"

Noah ignored the angry response he received but continued as the thought of blackmailing Seto seemed like too much fun to pass up. "…. then I'll make sure that everyone in the whole world receives an e-mail stating just how much you 'fancy' that girl."

An angry, frustrated growl rumbled through Seto's lips as he glared down to where Noah sat on the ground. There was no way he'd ever confess to how much he liked the girl whom he had saved back at the docks in Domino, so his password would have been impossible for anyone to crack but now that it was known by someone else he'd have to change it right away.

Seto walked away from Noah as he began to trek through his computer's system. A sly smile was present upon his face from the thought of being able to throw his stepbrother out and then changing his password to keep the boy locked outside his company's system and away from him for good. Or perhaps he'd be able to find some way of deleting him instead? _No._ He shook the thought from his mind. Though he felt great hatred towards Noah for what he had done, that would be too much of a cruel thing to do to the boy who had just helped him. He owed Noah that much not to destroy him. Besides he still had no idea of how to control things around him and he didn't intend to stay the way he was, trapped inside the brain of a computer. He would reclaim his body somehow.

Thoughts of Mokuba now drifted through Seto's mind as he focused on using them to help motivate him more into figuring out how to control his computer's systems from the inside. Had his brother been aware of the swap that had taken place inside his body? Would Mokuba be mourning him, thinking that he had been destroyed along with the rest of the self destructing programme? What kind of treatment would he be receiving from their stepfather? Seto figured that Gozaburo would be acting as him so as not to blow his cover, but how long would that last for before the old man started to change and become more like he had been before he had become digitally trapped inside the programme alongside his son?

"You do know that I'm here waiting to help you Seto?" Noah's voice broke him from his panicking thoughts. His stepbrother was now standing right in front of him when Seto clearly knew that he'd been walking away from him for sometime now.

"No thanks." Seto snorted, knocking back the offer of help as he'd do things his way, as soon as he knew what way that was anyway. He didn't need to have things explained to him by some younger brat who believed that he was more intelligent than himself as he'd find the answers he needed on his own any moment now.

"Ah, of course, there's that trademark Kaiba pride." The green haired boy said mockingly as he watched Seto stride away from him once more. "Always convinced that you can do anything on your own without any help from others whom you deem yourself better than. That's another trait of father's that you seem to have perfected." Noah waited smugly with folded arms as he knew he'd get a reaction from the older boy anytime soon. "Makes me wonder just how much like him you've become."

_What the hell was that supposed to mean?! _Seto spun around furiously to face his stepbrother for having again compared him to Gozaburo, but Noah was nowhere to be seen. He turned back to continue on his way wandering through his programme and was startled to see the boy stood directly in front of him.

"If you're not going to accept my help for yourself then at least do it for our brother's sake."

"What makes you think that you can address _my_ brother as your own?" Seto glared down into the blue eyes staring up at him.

"Mokuba forgave me for the things I've done, sees me as family and called me brother before he parted to rejoin the real world." Noah stared back into the icy glare to let Seto know that he wasn't going to be able to intimidate him. "I know he'd want you returned to him, so I'll do whatever it takes to keep my brother happy."

Seto couldn't argue with Noah's reasoning for wanting to help him so maybe he should just accept whatever help was offered as it was definitely going to be more than what he had gained on his own so far. "I just want to make one thing clear." Seto growled. "I _hate _you, Noah."

"Likewise, Seto." Noah smirked in reply.


	3. Chapter 3

**Thankies again for the reviews :)**

**Chapter Three**

The two stepbrothers stared loathingly at each other in the dark emptiness of Kaiba Craft Three's computer system, both of them with the understanding that they were only working together for Mokuba's benefit. Noah averted his gaze upwards to the area above them causing Seto to do the same as a glowing image of a circuitry board rippled out across the emptiness before it disappeared again.

"Your first task will be to make that image stay in the space above us." Noah said as he returned his eyes to Seto who was now staring back at him. "In order to take control and do that you'll have to close your eyes and focus your mind into the system around us."

"I'm not closing my eyes around you." Seto narrowed his view on the boy who he didn't trust. There was no way he was going to make himself more vulnerable to Noah who seemed to be enjoying the fact that he currently held the power over him.

Huffing and rolling his eyes, Noah closed his own in the hope that Seto would follow. As much as he enjoyed winding up the CEO, he wasn't in the mood for arguing right now. "Your turn Seto. Close your eyes and focus."

"Done." Seto replied bluntly as he continued to watch his stepbrother whose eyes remained closed with the corners of his lips curling up.

"You're lying." Noah laughed, leaving Seto to wonder how the boy had known so. "For once in your life, just open up that closed mind of yours."

Seto gritted his teeth and shut his eyes. _This is ridiculous. _After a moment of nothing but the back of his eyelids, Noah came into view and surrounding them were displayed hundreds of lines of computer script programming.

"What took you so long?" the green haired boy smirked at seeing the CEO. "To work this world you simply alter the programme to your needs like so." Noah reached out towards the scrolling digits before him and changed them around to make the circuitry board appear above them and then disappear again. "Now you try it."

_That's it?! _Holding back the urge to spurt out an insulting remark at Noah for talking down to him like a child, Seto altered the script so that the circuitry board stayed visible above them. _That's how they managed to control that virtual world and lead the others and myself into believing that they had a greater power over us?! _Anyone of them could have seized control for themselves at any time if only they'd known how. He let himself fade from the script and Noah's view as he reopened his eyes. Now that he knew what he needed for manipulating the programme he didn't need his stepbrother's company any longer.

"I know it can be hard to focus at first, but you'll soon get the hang of it." Noah rejoined Seto by his side still talking down to him beneath the glowing electrical sky. "And once you do then you won't need to keep closing your eyes each time, only when there's something which requires your sole concentration to carry out."

"Your presence is no longer required Noah, so beat it." Seto spoke calmly to his stepbrother whom he was willing to spare from having shown him the simplicity of controlling the world around them which he had failed to figure out for himself.

"But you haven't learnt how to ….." Noah trailed off as Seto transformed the rest of the darkness around them into the same image that shone above without having to close his eyes to focus on the programme scripting. He was surprised that his stepbrother had caught on so quickly but then again he should have known better than to expect anything less of him.

"Go now, before I change my mind and delete you."

Noah eyed him fearfully and remained frozen where he stood. That had to be a bluff, Seto was cold but there was no way he'd be that ruthless after he had just helped him, or would he? He had been prepared to finally have his life come to an end back in his virtual world during the self destruction for the dignified act of protecting his stepbrothers and their friends from further harm at his father's hands, but not like this. "You don't seriously mean that?"

The CEO glared harder at the boy, hoping that Noah would leave him on his own from then on but still he remained where he was. What was wrong with this boy, did he like being threatened and abused? Seto knew that he didn't really want to delete the stepbrother, though he couldn't vanquish the thought from his mind, and one of the many things he never did was bluff so he would follow through with his threat. His eyes narrowed dangerously on Noah and he began to attempt to rearrange his data causing the boy to flicker in front of his eyes.

"Stop this please!" Noah exclaimed as he stared at his fingers which were now almost transparent and then looked up deep into the angry blue eyes knowing he deserved every single bit of hatred that was being sent his way. "I don't blame you for hating me after what I've done to you and Mokuba, but don't let your hatred control you." He could hardly make out his fingers anymore and his vision began to blur as tears formed in his eyes. "Please don't become our father."

The plea rang through Seto's mind as he saw Noah weeping before him, crying tears which weren't the boys own fear of having his life ended, but tears that fell with concern only for him. He couldn't recall anyone but Mokuba crying for him. Nobody had ever taken their time to just think about him, his feelings and the man he was slowly becoming, nobody except his brother. His concentration broke and Noah became a solid image again.

"Thank you Seto." Noah sniffed as he stood watching his stepbrother who was clearly battling within his own thoughts. His father hadn't been successful in creating what he thought to be the prefect predecessor after all, which he himself was relieved to know. "I'll go now." He whispered and turned away ready to leave the older stepbrother on his own.

Seto took slightly longer to react than he normally would have as he pushed back all the realisations which were starting to hit him and swung out his arm to take a firm hold of Noah's so that the green haired boy could not escape his presence. "You're not going anywhere."

"But I thought….?" Noah was confused by Seto's reaction. Had he been wrong in thinking that his stepbrother would cease to try and delete him? Or had Seto had a change of heart and forgiven him for everything he'd done? The look in the blue sapphire eyes told him there was still much hatred towards him.

"Stay." Seto simply said letting go of Noah's arm. He had been so quick to misjudge the boy's good intentions which were apparently sincere after all. It would still take much time, if ever, before he'd forgive his stepbrother for what had happened but he couldn't carry on the rest of his life pushing people away from him. "But don't get me wrong, I still _hate_ you."

A happy smile wobbled across Noah's teary face. "I know."


	4. Chapter 4

**Thank you reviewers :)**

**This chapter contains scenes from episode 128**

**Chapter Four**

Together Seto and Noah searched the airship's computer system until they had located the security cameras,- which where placed in almost every room onboard the craft, in order for them to be able to see what was going on in the real world. They sat together almost side by side as they typed away on keyboards in front of them which Seto had insisted on as it was a lot more practical that standing about with eyes closed and waving arms around like idiots.

"Where is everyone?" Noah asked as all of the cameras failed to display any passengers who weren't staff or the two unconscious duellists in the medical rooms.

"My guess would be the duel tower." Seto replied, silently wishing that he had installed security cameras up there also as he was having a hard time trying to hack into the television networks' who would be airing each duel back to Domino city. He was also struggling to accept the fact that he would not be reigning supreme over his rival as a result of his tournament. Even with his powerful Blue Eyes deck there was no way that Gozaburo would be able to use it to defeat Yugi as his stepfather lacked the skill and knowledge to be able win against the spiky haired boy, and if by some freak chance the old man did succeed then it wouldn't be Seto's own triumph making it twice as bad for him to handle.

Seto's eyes suddenly widened as he realised that there was also a very great chance that his stepfather could lose duels against the other two finalists also. Marik he'd be able to understand as the psycho had a powerful god card in his deck, but Wheeler? If Gozaburo made him look bad by losing to that mutt then he'd never hear the end of it or be able to reclaim any kind of duellist dignity ever again.

"Joey, wake up!" Came a cry from one of the cameras and Seto's thoughts were interrupted by the mutt's sister,-what was her name again?, she ran beside her unconscious brother as he was suddenly rushed through the aircraft on a stretcher into the medical room.

The stepbrothers watched as the doctors quickly scrambled around complaining that they weren't prepared or equipped to cope with all three casualties that were now occupying their rooms and that their boss should consider moving them to the city hospital. Only the mutt's sister and Tristan were behaving hysterically as the other friends remained reasonably calm, though Yugi was clearly in a severe state of shock, and the doctor's explained the situation of the fallen duellist.

"What happened?" Noah thought out loud and turned to see Seto staring at the screen as he glanced back and forth between the two finalists in the room.

_Swoosh! _The door to the room slid open and Tea turned to demand an answer from the boy stood in its doorway. "Mokuba, when are we moving Joey to a _real_ hospital?"

Seto's heart leapt at seeing that his brother was okay. "I got bad news. I don't think we're gonna move Joey anywhere right now guys. Those orders came from Seto."

"You've got to be kidding!" Tristan exclaimed as he pushed past Duke to get to Mokuba.

"He says our own doctors are good enough."

"I don't believe this!" Anger flashed in Seto's eyes as Tristan raised a fist in frustration towards his little brother whom had no power over the situation and was looking extremely uncomfortable as he broke the news which their stepfather was too cowardly to do himself.

"Besides our engines are damaged and we can't move." Mokuba began to explain. "It happened when we barely escaped that explosion on the way to Kaiba Corp Island. The ship made it here but now our engines are down." His head was hanging low as he avoided the stares at him. "I'm not supposed to tell anyone."

"So we're stuck here?!" Tea joined Tristan's side and Seto wished that they'd just back off and leave Mokuba alone as he couldn't do anything to change the situation.

"Don't worry about a thing." Mokuba perked up and raised his head. "I'll radio headquarters and make sure they send over a helicopter right away guys."

"Mokuba, thank you." Yugi broke from his trance.

"Just promise you won't tell Seto." Mokuba ran from the doorway as Tristan confirmed that his help would be kept secret from his big brother.

"The old fool can't even act like me and has to send my little brother to do things for him." Seto sneered before a proud smile crept onto his face at seeing his brother take control of things, and couldn't help but wonder if Mokuba was ever defiant towards himself.

"And what would you have done?" Noah asked and failed to stop himself from yawning.

Seto was wondering the same thing, just what _would_ he have done? He thought back to when the other duellists had fallen. The first, Bakura, had prompted Yugi and the others to seek him out in his room as they were greatly concerned about their friend's health. When he refused to land his airship at their request they called him in-human but should have known that he wouldn't host such an event without taking every aspect into account, which was why he had medics already onboard to attend to the injured boy. At the time that the second duellist, Mai, had fallen he had been so caught up and eager to continue with his tournament that he simply blanked what had happened as he knew that his medics would be on hand to treat the woman.

This he knew would also be the same reaction he would have given towards Joey if he had been in his stepfather's current place, except he'd have listened to the doctors' worried concerns. They were the ones who were experts in their jobs, not him, so what right did he have to play with the lives of others? Even though it was the irritating blonde in question, he would never needlessly put anyone's life in danger.

The security cameras currently showed Yugi as he stood outside the medical room where his friend was being treated. Seto watched as his rival slammed his clenched fist at the wall as he battled to keep himself together before then turning his attention to the other cameras and searched for Mokuba whom he found in the cockpit as he tried to make contact through the radio's frequencies. "Can you read me? Come in please, I need a helicopter right away. Come in, is anyone out there?"

"We seem to be experiencing temporary transmission interference due to our distance from the mainland, sir." Roland explained to the dark haired boy who continued to try and make contact with the outside world.

"Aww man! Come in, anyone, send a rescue 'copter immediately."

His brother was trying so hard to help make things right but wasn't having any luck in succeeding. Seto watched Roland leave the cockpit to start the next duel which was between his impostor and Yugi, leaving Mokuba behind as he continued to use the radio with tears of frustration building up in his grey-blue eyes. The CEO began to type away at the keyboard in front of him, determined to help his little brother succeed.

"Seto?" Noah had been waiting patiently for a reply to his question which seemed to have been ignored, clearly a sign that his stepbrother didn't want him around. He yawned again as he was finding it difficult to hide his tiredness of not resting from the build up to when the underwater base rose from the sea to intercept the KC airship earlier that day.

"Quit doing that." Seto snapped at his stepbrother, as he sent an emergency message across the internet connection which only he had access to.

"I'm sorry." Noah apologised for his tiredness and fought back yet another yawn. "It's been months since I last rested."

With the distress message sent Seto returned to viewing the cockpit only to find that Mokuba had gone so then checked the rest of the aircraft but still couldn't find his little brother. He noticed Noah yawn again which was really starting to get on his nerves. "Rest whilst you can."

"Are you sure?" Noah asked in surprise that his stepbrother had made the suggestion. Or had it been an order? An inaudible grunt and slight nod of the head was his reply from Seto who was now once again attempting to access the television networks' cameras to watch the duel that would now be underway. A huge comfy cushion appeared before him and Noah snuggled up as he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep instantly leaving his stepbrother to carry on working in peace with no irritations to bother him.


	5. Chapter 5

**Big thanks to Setoglomper for reviewing each chapter so far :)**

**Chapter Five**

_Damn!_ Seto struck angrily at the keyboard as he had been so close to gaining access to the duel's images only for the camera to cut out the moment it displayed the two duellists facing off against each other. He suspected that the problem had something to do with his stepfather disabling the cameras from airing the remaining duels, though Yugi and the others might have tried to convince him that it had something to do with that stupid pyramid that his rival always wore.

Not being one for quitting, Seto attempted to try again for the umpteenth time only for the keyboard to disappear from beneath his fingertips. The screen and chair he was sitting on also vanished causing him to drop to the floor, and the circuitry board surroundings were replaced with a child's bedroom layout. Angrily, he turned to face Noah ready to demand an explanation as to what was going on only to find that the boy was still sleeping peacefully.

The sound of a violin being played diverted Seto's attention and he saw a much younger version of Noah playing the musical instrument. _Great._ Seto thought sarcastically to himself as he realised that it was his stepbrother's sleeping mind causing a memory to be displayed before him. He had two options; either wake the boy who clearly needed to rest or sit it out until the dream finished. It would be unfair to wake his stepbrother since he had been the one who had told Noah it was okay to rest in the first place, so Seto decided that he would just wait a while longer for the dream to end. Besides it wasn't like he had been getting anywhere with watching the remainder of his tournament which he already knew his own disastrous outcome.

Seto stood towards the back of the room as he watched and listened to Noah play the violin as the young boy's fingers gracefully danced along the instrument's neck, the bow moving back and forth, sometimes with quite forceful strokes. He recognised the piece of music as Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, which Seto knew to be one of the most difficult works to play and yet here was his stepbrother performing it flawlessly. How old must Noah have been? Seven, eight perhaps? There was a sigh of relief as Seto was thankful that Gozaburo had never pushed him into playing any kind of harmonious instrument as there wasn't a musical bone in his body to be able to help him reach the unreasonably high expectations that his stepfather had.

"I did it!" Noah yelled excitedly as the piece came to an end and he startled a cat which had been curled up at the bottom of the boy's bed. "Just wait till mother hears, she'll be so pleased." A smiled crossed the young boy's face as he reached out and stroked the cat who purred from his touch.

_That would explain it._ Seto thought to himself as now he knew that Noah had been playing to please the mother not the father, which was probably why Gozaburo hadn't forced him down that road. What had happened to the old man's wife anyway?

The smile faded from Noah's face as shouting could now be heard from elsewhere in the mansion. "They're arguing again Tiggs." The boy spoke to the cat who just stared back at him. His big blue eyes began to water and Noah quickly wiped the tears away with his sleeve before he raised his violin back under his chin. "One more time?"

"_Meow?" _

A sad smile flickered on the young boy's face as he started to play the concerto from the beginning to drown out the angry yelling of his parents. Again Seto watched and listened to Noah play the stringed instrument which he found soothing as it made him aware of just how tired he himself had become over the days since his tournament had began.

Just as Noah was coming to the end of the second part of the concerto the door to his room opened and in entered Gozaburo. A huge smile appeared on the young boy's face as he greeted his father. "Father, I did it. I managed to play Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto all the way through with no breaks or mis……." He trailed off as the violin was suddenly ripped from his hands by the old man, and the smile vanished from his face.

"When will you _both_ learn that you're wasting _your_ time with music?" The violin's neck was easily snapped by Gozaburo's hands before he broke the upper and lower bouts apart by smashing them across his raised knee. "The sooner _you_ learn that, the better."

"But I like playing the violin." Noah argued weakly and started to cry which caused his father to strike him hard. The cat hissed as it rose up on its feet and stood with all of the hair raised on its body and tail.

Out of the corner of his eye Seto saw the sleeping Noah fidget and whimper from the blow that the younger version had received from Gozaburo who was now yelling. "Stop that pathetic crying, you _useless_ boy!"

There was another strike given by the stepfather along with more whimpering from the sleeping boy as the memory began to fade and a new scene slowly appeared around Seto. This time he was outside in the garden of the mansion when the young Noah ran passed him.

"Tiggs! Where are you, Tiggs?!" The boy searched every place he could think of as he looked for the cat.

Seto didn't have to move from where he stood as the dream pulled him through the scene as the younger Noah approached round to the front of the house. There in the driveway a car was parked, in front of it stood opposite each other was Gozaburo and his wife and around them several of Gozaburo's lackeys.

"Mother?!" Noah shouted out as he saw her approach the car ready to enter and stopped as she heard her son's voice and saw him race up to her. "Where are you going?"

The woman, whose face was badly beaten and tear stained, broke down into more floods of tears as she pulled the young boy close to her and hugged him tightly.

"She was just leaving." Gozaburo stated coldly as he glared at his wife who looked up at him with pleading eyes. "Weren't you, _honey_?" he sneered.

"Please." The woman begged as she stared into the cold emotionless eyes of her husband and abuser. "I won't ask you for anything else; just let me have my baby."

Seto followed the eye-line of the terrified wife as she glanced from Gozaburo's hateful face to the lackey that stood half hidden behind the old man, who moved his jacket slightly to reveal a gun held in the holster around his waist. _You evil bastard._ His mind sneered about his stepfather.

"Don't cry mother." Noah struggled to speak as he realised that his parents were finally separating from each other. "I can still come and visit you."

The mother slowly eased her son out from their embrace and shook her head as she fought to keep herself from crying more tears. "Goodbye, my little star." She whispered and failed to keep control of her emotions as she got up and entered the car before the several men hired by her husband did the same.

Sadness glistened in the young Noah's eyes as he watched the car, with his mother, driven off leaving him behind, alone with his father. The heartache was felt and Seto knew that his stepbrother was fighting within himself to keep those feelings hidden from the cold man standing behind him. To show anymore weakness would have entitled the boy to another beating like the one from the previous scene. Seto glanced across to the sleeping Noah and saw several tears creep slowly down the boy's cheek as a result from the painful memory which he had just witnessed.


	6. Chapter 6

**Thanks again for the reviews you guys :)**

**Chapter Six**

Father and son returned to inside the mansion and the scene faded again as it was replaced with a picturesque forest and lake, behind Seto there was now a log cabin. The door of the cabin opened, Noah and Gozaburo emerged carrying fishing rods as the two of them headed across towards the lake, both of them enjoying themselves laughing and joking as they boarded a sailing yacht that was tied up on the wharf at the water's edge. Unable to escape from the dream around him Seto found that he too was also forced onboard. The Noah in this memory appeared to be a couple of years older than he had been in the others and it looked like the relationship between the two Kaibas had re-grown into a loving father-son bond during that time.

Seto remained as far away as possible from the two of them as he felt like he was intruding on the occasion. He had never once seen his stepfather in the same manner as he was now and was slightly envious of the father and son bond that he had failed to experience. But the envious feeling quickly dissolved as his own memories of Gozaburo tried to resurface in his mind and Seto swiftly pushed them back to the depths from which they had come. He hadn't been the old man's 'true' son, but that still didn't make right the wrongs which he had had to endure from his stepfather.

Noah's laughter rang through the air and was then shortly joined by his father's. The two of them wrestled with the fish they had just caught as it flailed about in their grasp. "I'm so glad that we're spending more time together." The boy beamed.

Something seemed out of place to Seto. He had just witnessed two distressing memories for Noah so why was this third one happy? Was it the boy's way of overlooking the bad times with the good? Or could it be possible that this was in fact just merely a dream of the way his stepbrother had hoped for things to be? Thinking back to the footage he had watched on the old fashioned film reel in the virtual world where they had been trapped, Seto could recall seeing brief shots of the father and son on a sailing yacht so was it possible that this was from that time?

The surroundings changed again as Seto now found himself dragged to below deck where the father and son were cleaning up after their fresh fish supper. "Thank you for this wonderful vacation father." Noah smiled causing Seto to roll his eyes and turn his back on the two of them, any moment now he was going to be sick from all the father and son affection being shown.

"Everything comes at a price though my son." Gozaburo's words sent a chill down Seto's spine as he had heard those exact same words spoken to him by his stepfather in exactly the same evil amused tone which had just been used.

"What kind of price?" Noah asked innocently.

"How much do you love your father Noah?" Gozaburo's hand rested on his son's shoulder.

"Lots." Was the reply that the boy gave to what he thought was a stupid question.

_Wrong answer. _Seto slowly turned around and feared what he would witness next as he saw the young Noah forced down to the floor. He had been in the same situation as his stepbrother on a number of occasions.

"Father?" Confusion replaced the once happy tone of the Noah's voice. "What are you doing?"

In the corner of the room the sleeping Noah whimpered, as the memory one was struck and told to stay quite. This caught Seto's attention, as he watched the memory Noah try to escape from his father's unbreakable grasp. The sleeping boy had shown signs of discomfort and distress from the previous memories and he couldn't, - wouldn't, let this one continue.

"Father! Stop it! You're hurting me! Please, father! Stop!"

Seto promptly made his way over to his sleeping stepbrother and shook him. "Wake up." He kept his eyes focused on the boy in front of him and tried to block out the cries from behind as Gozaburo overpowered his son. "Damn it Noah, wake up!"

Noah's eyes flew open, the scene around them vanished and the circuitry board returned, a cold sweat dripped from his horrified face as he stared up at his pale stepbrother. "What did you see?" he demanded with mournful eyes.

"Everything." Seto confirmed quietly.

"You watched my memories?!" Noah's voice was now raised and angry.

"Like I had a choice?!" Seto retorted as he now glared down into the emotionally confused blue eyes which were trying to stand firm against his own. "Your subconscious mind was the one that displayed them."

Noah remained silent as he thought about what Seto had just witnessed. The first time that his father had ever hit him, the last memory he had of his mother, and the worst day of his life when his father trapped and sexually abused him, only to later convince him that it had been an act of love. The boy's eyes scrunched up and fists clenched as he tried to keep hold of the pain that was trying to escape from within him. "Why did you wake me?" his voice wavered.

"Why do you think?" Bitter sarcasm filled Seto's reply as he stared down at his scared stepbrother. No matter how much Noah attempted to appear strong he didn't do a very convincing job of it, he would always be a frightened little boy who tried to act tougher than he really was. But why should a child be forced to suppress their true feelings? "I couldn't let you re-live that experience." Seto's voice was now calm and sympathetic.

"But I deserved to be punished for disappointing him." Noah clenched his fists tighter turning them white and opened his teary eyes to look up at his stepbrother. "Didn't I?"

Gozaburo had clearly messed with his son's head so much that Noah believed he was the problem that needed to be fixed. Seto stared into the eyes that were pleading for an answer from him. "No, you didn't."

The younger boy's whole face trembled as Noah fought to stop himself from breaking down in front of the older boy. Despite all of what his father had done to him, he still cared for the old man. But why? His father didn't care about him. Sure Gozaburo had gone to great lengths to preserve his lifeless body, but was that because he wanted to keep hold of his son or because he needed a guinea pig to test out his technology before his own death so that he'd be able to preserve his own body? A tear rolled down Noah's cheek as he realised that he'd just been fooling himself all this time into thinking that someone might have actually cared for him. Even the thought of his other stepbrother's parting words wasn't enough to make him change his mind.

"What your father did was pure cruelty." Seto continued his reply to Noah's plea as he watched the tear fall on the boy's face. "He had no right to hurt you in those ways, regardless of what you did or didn't do. No man should be able to escape punishment after disgracing his sons in such a way."

Noah couldn't help but focus on the fact that Seto had said _'sons'_. Did that mean that he had suffered the same treatment? "You too?" he daringly asked.

Seto cursed himself for revealing the fact he had kept hidden, even from Mokuba, then nodded sadly before vanquishing all emotion and made it clear to Noah that he wasn't going to dwell on what had happened to himself. "_I _don't burden others with my problems; _I_ hit that wall years ago and scaled it." He watched as Noah broke eye contact with him, recoiling back into his thoughts veiled with tears. "But you're obviously struggling to scale yours."

"So what am I supposed to do next?" Noah mumbled as he made sense of Seto's emotional metaphor.

Just a couple of hours ago Seto had hated the stepbrother with a vengeance, and now he was beginning to feel sorry for Noah after what he had learnt through the boy's memories. He'd also seen several resemblances between his stepbrother and himself, both of them had lost their mothers, had their dreams shattered, been forced to grow up quicker and abused by Gozaburo. "Rest and try again." Noah looked up at him sadly which reminded him vaguely of Mokuba. "Let it all out and I'll help you get over that wall."

There was a slight hesitation before Noah approached his stepbrother and exploded into cascades of tears as he placed his head on Seto's chest. His arms rose and gripped tightly at the flowing white coat as he sobbed heavily finally letting go of all the pain he had stored in his complete loneliness.

Seto stood rigidly and made no attempt to remove his stepbrother from him as he let the boy cry for as long as he needed to. After a while he found himself softly caressing Noah's green hair like he would have done if it had been Mokuba clinging to him. "I was wrong." He heard his stepbrother whisper through his tears. "You're nothing like him."


	7. Chapter 7

**Thanks again :)**

**This chapter contains scenes from episode 143**

**Chapter Seven**

_Why is he still holding onto me? _Seto thought to himself over an hour later as he stood with Noah clinging to him. The boy had finished crying all of his tears a while ago but still remained where he was. _If he thinks that I've forgiven him for what he's done just because of a few bad memories, then he's greatly mistaken. _He raised his arms ready to pull his stepbrother from him but froze as he remembered the empty promise he'd made earlier which he would now have to follow through with. Why had he agreed to help this boy overcome his traumatic past? "There are some things that I still need to do." Seto looked down and then gently removed the boy from himself.

"Of course." Noah replied as he wiped the last few tears which hadn't dried, from underneath his eyes. "I didn't mean to keep you from watching the tournament. I'm sorry, brother."

_Brother?! _Seto's eyes angrily narrowed on Noah. "Just because we now have a better understanding of each other, it doesn't give you the right to address me as your brother. Mokuba is the only brother I have. You got that kid?"

"I have." Noah nodded though clearly he hadn't as his mind swam with confusion of the sudden change in his stepbrother's tone.

"I reckon it will all be over with now anyway." Seto sighed as he changed the subject back, the keyboard and screen reappeared in front of him. Did he really need to react like that just because the boy thought of him that way? It wasn't like he had been forced to address the younger boy as his own so what harm could it do to let Noah call him brother? Seto sighed again, maybe he should apologise to the boy.

"Come on, you rust bucket. Start up already." Duke's voice could be heard as the screen reset itself to show images from the last security camera that they had viewed from in the airship's cockpit.

"Quiet back there." Several of Seto's men franticly tried to get the aircraft to start up. "The thrusters are not responding at all."

"Keep trying!" Duke ordered.

"Quiet!"

Seto stared at the cockpit's image, something was wrong. As well as his men he could also see Duke, two of the three fallen duellists; Bakura and Mai, and the mutt's sister standing there, the rest of Yugi and his geeks were nowhere to be seen. The girl started to cry and she was soon comforted by her friends.

"Wait until I get my hands on him." The Dungeon Dice Monsters creator snarled as he hugged the younger girl.

"You'll have to get in line behind Joey for that one." Mai told him.

"Then I'll hold while Joey pummels him." Duke replied.

"Come on guys, I'm sure Kaiba didn't intend for any of this to happen." Bakura butted in. "He wouldn't have the island blow up knowing that we couldn't leave beforehand, would he?"

"But he did know, Mokuba told us so." The mutt's sister sobbed and then added; "We're all going to die."

"How would father be able to blow up the island?" Noah asked Seto as he watched the girl passed across to the woman before the boys left the cockpit.

Ignoring his stepbrother, Seto typed away on the keyboard and brought up all the information on the failed engines. He cursed as he realised that there was nothing he could do within his programme to help fix the situation and then turned his attention to accessing the destruction programme for Kaiba Corp Island. His eyes widened as he saw that the hour countdown that he had originally set up was now at less than fifteen minutes remaining before the destruction began. _No. _He began typing again to see what had become of the distress message. "The helicopter should be here by now." He growled.

"Seto, what's going on?" Noah demanded not wanting to be left in the dark over what was happening.

"This island's gonna blow."

"Yeah, I figured that much." Noah replied sarcastically as he rolled his eyes, only to receive a disapproved glare from his stepbrother. "Why is it going to explode?"

"Because I built a control room underneath the tower for the sole purpose of doing so." Seto went on as he checked more of the security cameras onboard his aircraft. "Destroying the island was to mark my victory over Yugi and symbolise the beginning of my new untarnished future. But I never intended to start the destruction programme until the island was clear of everyone but Mokuba and myself as we'd emerge from the carnage in my Blue Eyes jet."

"And you had the nerve to call me a spoilt brat?" The stepbrother received another disapproving look for joking in the serious situation at hand. "Can't you just override the programme?"

"Not without the key cards." Seto sighed heavily as he knew that the key cards he was referring to hung around Mokuba and the impostor's necks as part of the lockets they both wore. "Over a dozen people are about to die, all because of me." He slammed his fists hard against the keyboard.

"You're not the one to blame for this, _he_ is." Noah's hand found its way up to rest on the taller boy's shoulder. "It's not your fault Seto."

_Of course it's my fault. _Seto thought to himself as he threw Noah's hand away from him. _This whole tournament has been just one big mistake after another._ No, maybe Noah was right, it wasn't his fault. He glared hard at the screen displaying the Ishtar's room, it was _hers_. If it hadn't of been for his first meeting with Ishizu then he never would have held the Battle City tournament like the woman had suggested. She had revealed to him the facts about the God cards which sparked his hunger to have all three in his deck.

"Hello in there!" The sound of the mutt's sister came from the Ishtar's doorway.

"All right, time to abandon ship." Mai was stood next to the girl as she ordered them around. "Come on, hurry."

"There's only a few minutes left." The girl squeaked as they ushered the three Egyptians out of the room.

"The medical chopper has just landed so get onboard quickly!"

A weight was lifted from Seto's shoulders as there was now a chance for everyone to escape from the island. He just wished that he could somehow make sure that Mokuba was safe and sound. Part of him knew that Gozaburo wouldn't be foolish enough to throw away the new chance of life that he had stolen which meant keeping his brother out of harms way in order to go undetected from the body switch, but there was also a part of him that knew his stepfather would want to destroy everything that he had, including Mokuba.

"He's safe." Noah spoke as though he had been able to read Seto's mind. "I can feel it." He looked at the countdown which only had a few minutes remaining. "Now we have to leave too otherwise we run the same risk of being destroyed like the one we barely escaped back in the virtual world."

"How?" Seto asked as there was nowhere else they could transfer themselves to.

A smile appeared on Noah's face. "Haven't you ever wanted to surf the internet? Literally?"


	8. Chapter 8

**Thankies for the reviews :)**

**This chapter contains a scene from episode 121**

**Chapter Eight**

The Blue Eyes jet hovered above the runway of a military base in the middle of nowhere. Slowly the engines died down and the jet came to a soft silent landing on the tarmac before the two brothers alighted from the aircraft.

"What are we doing here Seto?" Mokuba asked.

"You'll see soon enough." A smirk appeared on Kaiba's face as Gozaburo stared at the huge complex.

Together, with Gozaburo leading the way into the place he was familiar with, both of the brothers entered inside the old abandoned building which hadn't been in use for some time now.

"This place is giving me the creeps." Mokuba shuddered as they passed through rooms that were cold, dusty and lined with spider webs. He jumped at the sight of a huge arachnid on the floor in front of them which was squished by his brother's boot a few moments later.

Not a word had been spoken between the two Kaibas as they made their way through several more units until they finally came to one which required a password in order to enter.

Kaiba smirked at the sight of the electronic door panel and Gozaburo quickly typed in his password; _Lazarus_. "After you little brother." He gestured for Mokuba to enter first.

Mokuba took the lead like his brother had insisted and entered the dark room. A few seconds later, after his eyes had adjusted to the darkness, he gasped at the sight he saw. "No way!"

There in the shadows of the room were two huge tanks, their contents glowing dimly. Inside each of them suspended in some kind of fluid was a body. One contained the body of a green haired boy, the other the body of a middle aged man.

"Yes way." Gozaburo gave an amused laugh as he turned on the lights for the room and saw Mokuba approach the tank which held Noah's body.

"You didn't have to lie to me." Mokuba whispered with teary eyes. "I knew you weren't coming back." Memories of his parting with his stepbrother resurfaced in his mind as he stared mournfully at the lifeless body in the tank in front of him.

_# They stood in a bright white mist in the middle of the vast emptiness around them as the two step brothers said their goodbyes to each other. "Thank you for helping me Mokuba. I'm glad that I got to know my brother."_

"_So does this mean you're not coming back?" Mokuba knew it would be hard but somehow he'd convince Seto to build a body for their stepbrother. Noah couldn't stay where he was, he had to come back with them to the real world. _

"_I am, but I must return to cyberspace first."_

"_But it's shutting down Noah!" Mokuba's voice echoed through the emptiness as his stepbrother turned away from him._

"_I'll be back."_

"_Then come with me now." He wasn't stupid; he knew that once Noah left he would never see him ever again. _

"_I'm afraid that there's something I still have to do Mokuba. You believed in me and you treated me like a brother. Now it's my turn to return the favour."_

"_Noah, don't go! Noah!" Mokuba reached out desperate to stop the other boy from leaving and then felt himself pulled back into his body as he heard Seto call to him.#_

Using his sleeve, Mokuba wiped his eyes. He wasn't a gullible little kid like some people thought, he knew that there was nothing back in the virtual world for Noah to do. How could his stepbrother have expected him to believe such a feeble lie? "There was no favour to return, you could of come with us." He began to sob with his arm still pressed against his eyes.

Gozaburo watched Mokuba's reaction. The younger of his two stepsons had always managed to see the good in everybody he met, but after what Noah and himself had put them through in the virtual world, why did Mokuba care about his son? What did it matter anyway, Noah was gone now, along with his other stepson whose body he had stolen. He began to flick all of the switches which supplied power to the machines that preserved the two bodies. There was no need to keep them 'alive' any longer, he had his new body, plus Gozaburo had another reason for making sure that they remained useless. He always liked to make sure that every possibility was covered, so _if _either one of the two boys he had trapped _somehow _found a way out of the virtual world, they wouldn't have these two bodies as possible vessels to return in. Not that they'd be able to use them until they had figured out a way to rejoin the soul back into the heartbeat-less body, but it was always better to be safe than sorry with such high stakes at risk.

"Come on Mokuba, let's go." Gozaburo called out as he turned to leave, satisfied with what he had just done. Now he'd continue with his stepson's life and slowly change it until it suited his own liking.

"You can finally rest in peace." Mokuba's fingers gently lay on the glass of Noah's tank as he softly spoke. "Goodbye." He pulled his hand away and began to follow his brother out of the room before he stopped and turned to stare at the other tank. "Wait a minute Seto, there's something else I need to do."

Outside the room, Gozaburo watched as the boy slowly returned back the way he had come and passed right by Noah's tank to approach the other. Kaiba's eyebrows rose as Gozaburo was surprised to see that his youngest stepson was going to say his goodbyes to him also. Mokuba really was naive to still care about him, but then again the boy didn't have a reason not to. It had been the older boy who had suffered at his hands to make sure that the younger lived the perfect carefree childhood.

Mokuba stared at the body of his stepfather floating in the tank. His whole face wrinkled up as he held back the anger he felt towards Gozaburo for the things he had done towards his brothers. Both of them had been unable to please his stepfather and so Gozaburo had forced them into changing their ways as they fought to do so. "I hate you." He hissed through clenched teeth and then failing to hold back the anger any longer, slammed both his fist against the glass. "You cowardly bastard!"

The fluid inside the tank rippled from being hit with the vast force and the noise caused Gozaburo to jump with surprise. He would never had guessed that the boy was capable of display such anger and hatred without having been push into doing so. _Cowardly am I? _A smirk appeared on Kaiba's face as more offending language left Mokuba's mouth and he continued to hit the tank. Gozaburo knew that the boy would not have dared to say those things, or anything else for that matter, directly to him.

"I hate you." Mokuba's outburst had come to an end as he weakly pummelled the glass one last time. Frustrated tears built up in his eyes as he thought about the cold changes he had seen Seto go through during the time they had spent with their stepfather. "You stole my brother from me and I'll never forgive you for it."

Mokuba saw his brother leering at him as he rejoined Kaiba outside of the room. "I'm sorry about that Seto, but I needed to get it off my chest." He mumbled and avoided eye contact, not wanting to be scolding for his use of language.

"That's quite alright." Gozaburo snorted as he closed the door behind them. He'd make sure that the boy paid dearly for his words, just as soon as the time was right.

The two brothers left the maze of the military base in silence and climbed back into the Blue Eyes jet to return home to the mansion. Once they got there Gozaburo would start work on reclaiming his company by first clearing out Seto's whole computer system to replace it with his own. He was convinced that his stepson was still predictable with his passwords, so would have no problems accessing Kaiba Corp's information.


	9. Chapter 9

**Thankies reviewers :)**

**(hands out freshly baked cookies)**

**Chapter Nine**

Everything was a blur as the two stepbrothers travelled along the internet. For several hours they had been thrown across wi-fi frequencies, inside broadband cables and down numerous phone lines as Seto struggled to keep focused on their destination. Millions of doorways passed by either side of the two boys as they held on to each other during their journey in the bright corridor that they sped through.

_Focus._ Seto's mind screamed at himself. Even though Noah had explained to him that going out onto the internet would be like this, he still hadn't prepared himself for the task which was unlike anything he'd experienced before. It was like riding the rollercoaster ride from hell, whilst trying the recite Shakespeare's complete works backwards, as they travelled in the bright chaos. His eyes were scrunched up tight but still Seto could see all of the exits whiz by until the website he'd been searching for came into view and they passed through a barrier to enter his chosen destination.

Suddenly the boys were ripped apart from each other. Seto landed hard on the ground and he suspected that all of his bones would have shattered from the impact had he still been in his physical form. He pushed himself up, his head still spinning, and looked around for the stepbrother who he saw running towards him.

"Wasn't that the most exhilarating thing you've ever experienced?" Noah laughed and helped the CEO up onto his feet.

"That's not the word I'd use to describe it." Seto held his head which was refusing to stay in one place and was glad that his stomach remained in the real world as otherwise its contents would soon be scattered for all to see. He was certain that information passed almost instantly along the internet and yet it had taken them so long, probably due to his lack of concentration on their destination. "How long were we travelling for?"

"Only a few hours." Noah smiled after he had summoned a clock to appear from within the site's programming. "The first time I ever travelled the internet it took me weeks to get back to the virtual world, father wasn't pleased at all." He stopped talking about his experience and the happiness faded from his face.

"You okay kid?" Seto asked trying to sound concerned and fulfil his 'empty-made' promise to Noah about helping him to overcome the memories of Gozaburo.

"Yes." Noah nodded with a heavy sigh. "Nothing happened once we were separate worlds, but still….." He trailed off as he thought about his father. "How can I hate him Seto?"

"Quite easily after the things he's put you through." Seto replied coldly. Surely he didn't have to remind his stepbrother of what he had seen in the boy's dreams?

"He's my father, asking me to hate him is like asking you to hate Mokuba." Noah argued, knowing that his stepbrother could never understand the father and son bond that they had once shared. He saw Seto struggle, but manage, to hold back what he knew would be an unpleasant remark for having compare the situation to the bond between his stepbrothers. Glancing at the site around them Noah changed the uneasy subject. "What are we doing here?"

All around them were displayed hundreds and possibly even thousands of photos of cloud formations; each one of them was different in its own unique way. "The Cloud Appreciation Society?" Noah's nose wrinkled with confusion as he had been expecting his stepbrother to take them to his company's website.

"You didn't think for one second that I'd leave an obvious backdoor to Kaiba Corp through my own website did you Noah?" Seto asked the confused looking boy in an amused tone. He led the way through the site with no trouble at all as he'd visited there on many occasions and stopped in front of the photo he loved the most. The photo showed his company's building and there in the sky behind and above it the clouds resembled a huge white dragon. He reached out to touch the image which dissolved to reveal an access panel that asked for a password to proceed onwards to Kaiba Corp and entered his own code: _Nikita._

"Another girl Seto?" Noah laughed but got no reply from the older boy. "You think you're quite the ladies man don't you?" He continued to laugh even through the icy disapproving glare that he was receiving from his stepbrother.

The password was accepted and the two of them entered through the door that opened up and instantly arrived inside Kaiba Corp's main computer system. Seto gave a sigh of relief as he knew that they'd be no more running involved and could now focus on planning a way to reclaim his body. He tried to bring up the connections to the many security cameras he had in place in order to track down the impostor's movements but failed. Closing his eyes to concentrate better, Seto tried again but found that the script for the cameras and other parts of his system were no longer there. "Someone has been deleting my programmes." He growled.

"Erm, Seto, I think you should take a look at this." Noah's voice sounded scared.

As he reopened his eyes Seto was met with the view of a long line of red flame monsters coming speedily towards them. He knew immediately that Gozaburo was behind it all and that he had arrived too late to be able to do anything to prevent it from happening further. The monsters deleted every bit of data in their path most of which had taken Seto months to create and even years to perfect, all that hard work, gone just like that.

"We have to leave now!" Noah yelled as he grabbed hold of his stepbrother's arm and pulled them both out of the system to re-enter the internet. They only remained in the bright chaos for a few seconds as the green haired boy flung them both into the nearest site which was an online entertainment retailer. Both boys landed apart from each other and Noah glanced across to where his stepbrother knelt staring into the empty space in front of him.

Seto's mind was having a hard time trying to register everything that was happening. He cursed himself for having chosen his mother's name as the password but knew that the reason he had done so was simply so he didn't forget her completely. His memories of her had long since faded but as long as he remembered her name then she'd always be with him and Mokuba, watching over them, and what better way to permanently imprint the name in his mind than to have it be the code for accessing his everyday life? He cursed again, this time for being so predictable that his stepfather had known that his password would be one of the few things he had cherished most. Seto's eyes burned as he felt foolish for ever thinking that there could possibly be a higher power out there watching over him as his life continued from bad to worse.

"Stay strong Seto." Noah placed a comforting hand on his stepbrother's shoulder which was quickly pushed aside. He didn't attempt to comfort the older boy any further as he knew his efforts would be unwanted, but Seto had vowed to help him conquer his past and so he would remain by his stepbrother's side waiting to be able to repay the favour if the chance ever arose.

Closing his eyes helped to ease the burning sensation and Seto took a deep breath to clear his mind. So far that day he'd lost not only his body, but his duel tournament as well as his company and was determined not to lose the most important thing to him. _Mokuba._ Seto's eyes reopened as he rose to his full height, he'd keep on fighting for his little brother like he always had done even if he could no longer be there in person. He'd be there until the end of time to watch over Mokuba, but how was he going to be able to do anything for his brother from where and how he was now?

"Now what?" Noah asked as he watched Seto slowly move away from him. "We could try accessing Kaiba Corp again as the monsters should have finished their work by now, and even though I'm pretty sure father won't waste a moment changing passwords to keep us locked out for good it still couldn't hurt to try." There was no response to his suggestion. "Seto?" He saw his stepbrother touch the image of a music CD which brought up all the information on the product that could be purchased through the site. "Seto, this is no time to be buying music!"

The Des Feral Imps was the name of the group whose CD Seto was viewing which would soon be available to buy or download the next day. A grin appeared on his face as he knew that they were his brother's favourite band and that Mokuba would waste no time downloading their new album onto his multi media player just as soon as it was made available. He pulled up the clock from the site's programme and saw that the current time was almost half past ten at night, that left him just over one and a half hours to get to the site where Mokuba acquired his music from before the first download would be available to purchase.

With thoughts of Mokuba in his mind causing him to do nothing but focus on the next destination, Seto strode over to his stepbrother and took firm hold of the boy. "Get ready Noah, we're going surfing one last time."


	10. Chapter 10

**Thanks again for the review :)**

**Also thanks to the shadow lurkers, alerters, and favers ;)**

**Chapter Ten**

With Seto's mind heavily focused on his next destination it took only a couple of minutes for the stepbrothers to arrive at the download site and with plenty of time to spare he insisted that the younger boy get the sleep which he had been disturbed from earlier, assuring Noah that he would wake him right away if any more subconscious images appeared. This gave Noah the chance to rest and Seto the chance to be on his own for a while as he planned ahead for possible ways to reclaim his body from his stepfather and tried to justify as to why he was keeping his stepbrother with him.

The time passed quickly as Seto came up with numerous ideas for reclaiming his body, most of which involved the use of his abandoned virtual pods, but hadn't found a single reason as to why he kept Noah around since the boy was of no more use to him now that he was so close to being reunited with his brother and own body. It was nearing nine o'clock when finally he spotted the open link between Mokuba's multi media player and the music album that his brother was about to download. Unsure of just how long they would have to be able to transfer into his brother's device Seto swiftly grabbed a hold of the sleeping boy and jumped across the open link where they both landed in a heap as they downloaded to safety.

"Huh?" Mokuba glanced down at the screen on his multi media player. _I wanted to download music, not a podcast. _He was about to press delete then started to pay closer attention to the images displayed as he heard two familiar voices come though his earphones as they started to argue.

"Why didn't you wake me?"

"There wasn't time."

"Would it have killed you to wait just a second longer?"

"Possibly."

"Then why not just leave me behind?"

"Because...? …………? You're right, why the hell didn't I?"

"Could it be that you actually care about me Seto?"

"If I knew you were going to act ungrateful and delirious about it, then I _would_ have left you behind!"

"This has to be some kind of joke!" Mokuba exclaimed at seeing Seto and Noah now stood face to face and annoyed with each other.

"Mokuba?" Both of the disagreeing boys looked up out of the screen at the sound of his voice and saw Mokuba jump, startled by the unexpected response from them.

"Okay, I'm hitting delete now." Mokuba said out loud.

"Nooo!" Seto screamed out. He hadn't come all this way only to be deleted by the one he was fighting to be reunited with. "Please Mokuba, don't press that button, we can explain everything."

Mokuba's finger hovered above the delete button as he glanced down into the tiny, terrified blue eyes of his brother staring back up at him. He had no idea as to what was going on or as to why he was talking back to the hoax image. "Explain away then."

"It's me Mokie." Seto began as though calling his brother by the nickname that he hadn't used since their time at the orphanage would suddenly make everything okay. _Yeah right._ He thought sarcastically to himself as his brother would probably want more proof than that. "Look, the short story is that Gozaburo escaped from the virtual world using my body, leaving me trapped inside cyberspace."

"That's a lie!" Mokuba interrupted angrily. "My _brother _is in his own body, Yugi rescued _him _from the virtual world just before it was destroyed, so this has to be some kind of a sick joke."

"It's no joke little brother. Our stepfather switched places with me when he struck out after losing the duel that Yugi saw ending. He became me and I became the monster he had turned into during his rage from the defeat." Seto explained with his eyes pleading for his brother to believe him. "If it hadn't been for Noah's help I would never have been able to escape from that place to find my way back to you."

"Noah?" Mokuba had almost forgotten about the other boy on the screen as he had been so outraged with the tiny version of Seto and looked across to see his stepbrother smile sheepishly at him.

"I'm afraid it's the truth brother." Noah nodded and caught a brief glimpse of the disapproving glare from Seto at hearing him address Mokuba as his brother. A genuine pleased and happy smile appeared on the green haired boy's face at being able to see the dark hair boy again. "I told you that I'd be back didn't I? Returning Seto is the favour that I owe and promised you."

Water began to well up in Mokuba's eyes as he realised that what he was being told had to be true as the parting conversation he'd had with Noah hadn't been heard by anyone else, so how else could the tiny Noah have known what he had told him? He glanced back to his tiny brother. "I'm sorry that I didn't believe you Seto."

"I wouldn't have believed me either." Seto laughed to lighten the mood and stop himself from shedding a string of tears like Mokuba was now doing.

"Don't cry Mokuba, everything is going to be okay." Noah assured as he watched his younger stepbrother wipe the tears from his eyes.

"I almost lost you both." Mokuba sniffed. "And now that I know Gozaburo is back, - in my brother's body - I'm scared." Both his voice and eyes showed signs of fear as he spoke.

"Why's that?" Seto tried to remain calm as he dreaded to think what his stepfather might have done to his little brother. "Has he hurt you in anyway?"

"No." Mokuba shook his head. "He's been acting just like you Seto; it's just that I said a few things that I shouldn't of." His voice became quieter as he began to explain about the military base. "After the tournament was over we flew to the place where he had been storing his and Noah's bodies, and once there he switched off the support systems that had been keeping them alive all this time." He gazed at his stepbrother who looked slightly shocked by the revelation. "I'm sorry Noah."

"At last, my body can rest in peace." The green haired boy whispered sadly as a happy tear trickled down his cheek.

"I said my final farewells to them both." Mokuba continued and began to fidget. "But the things that I said, - well more like yelled at him - weren't even remotely nice and I'm pretty sure that you would ground me for life if I ever use language like that again." He flushed slightly and averted his gaze from Seto so as to avoid a possible scolding for the swearing he'd just confessed to. "He's more than proven that he won't tolerate anyone who opposes him, so what if I'm next for the remarks I made?"

The comment made by his brother disheartened Seto greatly. It was like Mokuba had already accepted that Gozaburo had won but he too shared the fear his brother had. He looked longingly at the scared and saddened grey-blue eyes and knew that he would never give up on his brother. "It's okay Mokie, I can have everything returned to normal in just a few hours time, but I'm going to need your help, so you have to stay strong okay?"

Mokuba nodded in reply. His brother may have been distant and sometimes even cold towards him in the past, but one thing Seto never did was let him down, so he knew to believe when he was told things were okay.

"Why aren't you doing your homework?" Kaiba's cold voice came from the doorway to Mokuba's room.

A chill ran through Mokuba now that he knew Gozaburo was right behind him. _Stay calm, you can do this. You have to, for Seto's sake._ He told himself as he prepared to speak with his stepfather and as he turned around to face him, felt the electronic device ripped from his hands, leaving him with only the earphones as they came unplugged. _Give that back!_

Kaiba's eyes narrowed in disgust as Gozaburo viewed a brightly coloured cartoon of children playing a card game as the monsters came to life out of their cards. "Wasting your time I see, looks like I'll have to confiscate this."

"No!" Mokuba exclaimed in panic of being parted from his brother again then calmed his voice as he started to act towards his stepfather as though he was Seto. "The tasks for my languages' assignments are on there so I need it." He received an unconvinced glare. "Please Seto, I promise that I won't use it to watch anymore cartoons until I've finished everything." Still there was no reply from Gozaburo so Mokuba resorted to using puppy dog eyes which always worked on his brother but would his stepfather fall for them?

"Which languages?" Gozaburo demanded not buying for one minute that the boy was telling the truth.

"French." Mokuba replied instantly with the only language that he was study. Why did he pretend that he was taking more than one? He then added the first language which entered in his mind. "And Russian." _Crap! _Why had he said that, he didn't have a clue about Russian? _Please don't ask me to speak any right now._

Kaiba's cell phone rang and Gozaburo answered it with his gaze still firmly fixed on Mokuba. "What is it?" he snapped and then listened as Kaiba's secretary explain that several business associates were waiting at Kaiba Corp for a meeting which he was running late for. "I'm the one that calls the shots, if they don't like it then they know where the door is." The call was ended on that note and Gozaburo handed the multi media player back to its owner. "I have work to do now, as you do too. I expect to see all of those assignments completed by the end of the day."

"Understood." Mokuba smiled as he took back his device and watched Kaiba leave before he plugged his earphones back in and looked down at the screen to see one of his cartoons being played. "Seto? Noah?"

"We're right here Mokuba." Noah's voice spoke out over the cartoon which slowly faded to reveal the two boys.

"I'm very disappointed with you." A disapproving look was on Seto's face.

"For what?" Mokuba exclaimed before the cartoon reappeared behind Seto and Noah as the title credits played to reveal that the series he had stored on his device was the cheap imitation cartoon of his brother's favourite card game. "Oh that, I can explain. I _was_ searching for 'Duel Monsters' but _accidentally _typed in 'Duel Masters' and …." He broke off as he saw his brother's lips turn up in a smile.

"Just messing with you kiddo." Seto smirked. "But it does look like you've gotten yourself into a bit of a dilemma as now our stepfather will be expecting that Russian assignment you lied about."

"I know." Mokuba frowned. "What am I gonna do?"

"Leave it with us." Noah smiled. "We'll have those assignments done in no time, won't we Seto?"

"You guys are the best." Mokuba beamed as his brother nodded in reply to his stepbrother's question. "Now what can I do to help get you out of there?"


	11. Chapter 11

**Thankies :) **

**Yeah, I want him stopped too!**

**Chapter Eleven **

To carry out his brother's plan, Mokuba needed to enlist the help of Yugi and the gang to help him set up the virtual pods, which had been dismantled ever since the Big Five had tried to trap Seto there previously, but failed to do so, which led to his brother finally getting rid of them for their continuous treachery in their loyalty. He still got the chills as he remembered how they had handed him over to Pegasus, who had kept him locked up to try and break his will in order to sign Kaiba Corp over as his brother had supposedly been 'taken care of' by them also. But Mokuba knew that they couldn't return to hurt either of them anymore as he'd witnessed Noah delete all five of them back in the virtual world, and soon Gozaburo would face the same fate once Seto was back in his body.

Seto had insisted that he wasn't to reveal anything to the 'geek-squad' about what had happened and so Mokuba had instead fabricated a story about how he wanted to get the gaming system up and running again as a way of trying to get his brother to relax and overcome the disappointment of losing the tournament. A sly smile crept on Mokuba's face as he recalled the look of horror he had seen his brother display less than an hour ago when he had joked about Joey winning the Battle City tournament and Seto would probably have continued to believe the lie if he hadn't broke down into a fit of giggles and revealed the actual outcome. The smile faded as Mokuba turned his thoughts towards Noah. What would become of his stepbrother once all of this was over?

Clearing his mind, Mokuba concentrated on fixing the pod, which Joey and Tristan had carried for him a few minutes ago, to the main unit. Once the whole thing had been set up as Seto had instructed, all he then had to do was convince Gozaburo that the two of them spent every Saturday night playing together in the virtual computer game. His brother had assured him that their stepfather would still be keeping to the same routine so as to not blow his cover, but still Mokuba was nervous about leaving his two brothers on the virtual pods' system while he faced Gozaburo alone.

"It's my last chance to spend some quality time with my sis before she goes back home to our mom and what am I doing? Moving these pieces of junk around for Rich Boy's benefit!" Joey exclaimed angrily as he helped Tristan carry one more of the large virtual pods which he then let go of causing his end to drop down and received heated looks from both his friend and the younger Kaiba brother for his action.

Serenity gave a small burst of laughter at her brother's stupidity as the pod caught the toes of his right foot. "I don't mind helping out your friends if they need it." Along with Yugi and Tea, she was busy cleaning down the control surfaces that had been gathering dust from not being in use.

"Kaiba's no friend of mine." Joey grumbled as his removed his footwear to massage his throbbing toes. "Especially after that prank he pulled yesterday."

"In case you've forgotten Joey, we're here because _Mokuba _asked for our help not Kaiba." Yugi spoke up to remind his friend why they were there as the dark haired boy had called them for help an hour earlier.

"The least you could do is show your thanks to him for calling out the medical helicopter that came to rescue us." Tea added.

"Yeah, if it wasn't for the little dude, none of us would have escaped from the island." Tristan also joined in.

"I guess you're right." Joey sighed and turned to face the younger boy who was still busy connecting the first pod in the middle of the room. "Sorry Mokuba."

"Don't worry about it." Mokuba told the blonde. "Seto's been under a lot of pressure lately and isn't quite himself, but I know he'll thank you in person the next time he sees you."

"I can hardly wait." Joey muttered sarcastically as he lifted the virtual pod once more.

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Noah frowned at the text he had just typed for several of Mokuba's assignments that he had been working on, all of them were complete but none of them were good enough to merit anything higher than a C grade for his stepbrother. "Can't I let him have at least one A?"

"No." Seto replied bluntly as he worked on a cloaking programme which he planned to use against his stepfather later that day, he'd finished his share of his brother's assignments ages ago.

"How about a B then?" Several phrases of the French assignment were quickly altered by the green haired boy as he knew it would increase the grade.

"No." Seto replied again more firmly. "Mokuba's smart but he's not exactly a grade A student so anything too high may cause the old man to become suspicious."

"Okay." Noah sighed admitting defeat and re-altered the French assignment back to the way it was. "There finished." He looked across to his stepbrother who was busy typing away. "Why didn't you warn him?"

"There was no need to; I don't think that he'll be disappointed with the grades."

"I wasn't talking about the assignments Seto and you know it." Noah snapped as his stepbrother tried avoiding the question relating to Gozaburo abusing them in the manner he had done.

"He doesn't need to know." Seto stopped typing and remained calm despite the way the younger boy had just spoken to him. He would keep that part of his past locked away from his brother as revealing it would probably do more harm than good, and there was no way he wanted Mokuba to blame himself for the abuse which had been endured to keep him safe from their stepfather. "The poor kid is scared enough as it is without adding to his worries and fears."

"What if something happens to him?" Noah's voice was merely a whisper, he didn't envy Seto for the hard decision he had made over Mokuba's safety and sanity.

_Then I'll never forgive myself._ Words would never express the feeling Seto had if something were to happen to Mokuba which he could have prevented. The sheer thought of his innocent little brother having to experience _any _kind of abuse from their stepfather sickened him, so to know that Mokuba might fall victim to the sexual abuse deeply troubled him. And the fact that if it were to happen it would be _his _body causing the suffering … well, there just wasn't a word that could possibly describe his feeling of despair.

Noah now felt extremely guilty for having brought up the subject which had caused his stepbrother to coil up in his own thoughts as Seto stared into the space in front of him with his eyes glazed. "So, how's that cloaking programme looking?" He attempted to drag Seto out of his wallowing.

It took a few moments for his stepbrother to react and activate the programme but Noah soon found himself staring face to face with Mokuba. "Well?" the dark haired boy asked using Seto's voice.

"Perfect."

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At Kaiba Corp, Mokuba left the elevator and nervously approached his brother's office. In his hands he held the pile of assignments that Gozaburo was expecting from him and was thankful that both his brothers had bailed him out of the tight spot after he had lied about studying Russian. Now he just prayed that his stepfather wouldn't question him about the subject. _You can do this._ He told himself as he took one last deep breath before he knocked on the door and slowly entered to see Kaiba sat behind his desk as he screamed down the phone to whoever was on the other end.

"I don't care if you have a wife and kids! You're clearly incapable of doing your job so you're fired!" The phoned was slammed down and Gozaburo's attention turned to the boy who had entered the room. "What brings you here Mokuba?"

"These do." Mokuba smiled and held out his load as he presented the pile of papers to his stepfather. "I finished them all, just like you asked, like I always do." _Don't over do it. _His mind told himself.

Gozaburo took the papers, quickly flipped through them and Kaiba's brows rose from his surprise. He found that all of the assignments were complete and even ones for the two languages which he hadn't been expecting as he had been so sure that the boy had been bluffing about studying them, clearly not. The quality of the work wasn't anything to rave about as this boy's intelligence was obviously nowhere near as high as his older brother's, but still there had to be something that the younger boy was good for.

"And now that my homework has been taken care of, and you don't seem to be busy, why don't we start tonight's gaming a few hours earlier?" Mokuba smiled widely as he over expressed himself with his forced fake happiness. There was no response from his stepfather. "Come on bro, we play your virtual pod games every weekend."

"Not this weekend kid." Gozaburo dumped the pile of papers back in the arms of their owner and saw a baffled look on the young boy's face. He wasn't going to waste his time playing some childish computer game when there was still a lot of work to be done reorganising _his_ company. "I have a lot of work that I still need to do so tonight is cancelled."

"But."

"No buts!" Gozaburo roared scaring his youngest stepson and then let out a sigh as he assumed his oldest stepson would do the same after startling his brother through no fault of the boy's own. "Some things have to be sacrificed, everything comes at a price."

_No you can't do this!_ Mokuba's mind screamed to himself. _Seto's relying on me to get you into that pod and I won't let him down. _He resorted to the puppy dog eyes like he had done earlier. "What kind of price do I have to pay for you to play with me?"

The purely innocent question was received in completely the wrong manner as Kaiba's eyes fixed on his brother. _That's what you're good for. _Gozaburo's mind sneered as he rose out of the chair and approached the dark haired boy.

_Yes, I did it!_ Mokuba's mind rejoiced at the sight of his smiling brother coming towards him, clearly Gozaburo wasn't going to work after all; Seto's plan would still go ahead.

Kaiba now stood in front of his brother with both arms raised as he then clamped them on either side of the smaller boy's shoulders. "How much do you love your brother Mokuba?"

The younger boy looked into the cold sapphire eyes that stared down at him. He had sensed something not quite right about the question he had just been asked and didn't feel like providing an answer to it. Why had he been asked that? Was it possible that Gozaburo knew about his brothers' return? The look he received and grip on his shoulders grew more intense the longer Mokuba stalled with his answer. He had to say something. "I…." he paused as the look on Kaiba's face twisted with a malevolent smile as his answer began and now he was scared.


	12. Chapter 12

**:)**

**Chapter Twelve**

The look on the young boy's face told Gozaburo that he'd made his move far too soon. Mokuba clearly recognised the strange change in his brother's behaviour as it showed on the boy's confused face that even bore sights of fear. His twisted smile broadened at the sight which excited him even more with the power he held over his youngest stepson who he would soon rob of his innocence. It may have been too sudden to make such an advance on the boy but Gozaburo was more than confident that he'd be able to convince the gullible child into thinking that it had been an act to prove the closeness that they shared with their 'brotherly' bond. His grip on the smaller boy's shoulders increased again as he watched Mokuba's mouth gape as the boy struggled to answer the question asked, which clearly didn't matter as any moment now he'd force the boy over the desk and take him, but first he wanted the fear to last a while longer as it had been such a long time since he'd seen that look from either pair of blue eyes from his previous victims.

_Ring! Ring! Ring! _The phone on Kaiba's desk emitted the loud high pitched sound and both brothers' views glanced across to it. _Ring! Ring! Ring!_

"I think that you had better get that Seto." Mokuba said as it tore at his heart by still having to address the impostor as his brother. _Stay strong; stay strong, for Seto's sake._ He chanted to himself as he stared up and was relieved that the smile had left his brother's face as Gozaburo slowly and hesitantly released his grip.

_Ring! Ring! Ring! _Gozaburo silently cursed at the interruption that had stopped him from having his way with his stepson, picked up the receiver and held it in front of him as the voice on the other end mumbled away; his mind remained focused on the act he had planned to carry out. He longed to be able to experience the pleasure of dominating the innocent in his presence, which if he waited a moment longer Mokuba was sure to be more cautious of him from then on making further attempts towards his stepson more difficult, so he had to take the boy now whilst the chance was still there.

The phone's line was broken as Kaiba's finger cancelled the call and left the receiver off the hook so that Gozaburo could return his attention back to his stepson. He whirled around expecting to have to leap at the younger boy to keep him there in the office and was greatly surprised to find Mokuba still standing where he was, beaming with happiness. "You're under a lot of stress bro, so why don't we do something about that?" the boy smiled.

"You don't have to tell me twice." Kaiba's face twisted with the evil smile once more. His stepson really was so naive to not have noticed the danger he was in and Gozaburo laughed at his own paranoia of having thought otherwise. He took another step closer towards Mokuba who was still beaming from ear to ear.

"Great!" The dark haired boy exclaimed raising his clenched fists in a cute excited manner in front of him, his eyes big and sparkly. "Let's go play in the virtual pods!" _Stay strong; stay strong, for Seto's sake._

_This brat just doesn't know when to quit! _Gozaburo thought to himself as he continued to stare at Mokuba whose eyes were still big and pleading with him. The twisted smile on Kaiba's face lessened as Gozaburo found his stepson's happy carefree attitude amusing and similar to that of the two others' before he had started to mould them. If he were to let the boy play the computer game so that he became content and then prey upon him, it would be an even bigger distressing blow for his stepson to handle. This was exactly the same way he had abused his own son and had found it far more satisfying to watch the contented Noah break, unlike the overworked Seto who seemingly remained unfazed by it all. Maybe if he had heightened the blow for his oldest stepson, then perhaps things might have turned out different? Not that it mattered now; the smug overconfident teenager was long gone, and it was he, - Gozaburo Kaiba, who had gotten the last laugh.

"_Please_ Seto, just for an hour?"

"Just for an hour." Gozaburo confirmed. "And after that we do as _I_ please."

"Sounds good to me." Mokuba smiled in return. _I hope you know what you're doing Seto, because if not then all three of us are in for some serious trouble._

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"You idiot, I sound like a chipmunk!" Mokuba squealed in a high pitched voice.

"I'm sorry Seto; I just got part of that last scripting mixed up." Noah apologised for his genuine mistake though found it hard to stop himself from laughing as tears ran from his eyes at hearing his stepbrother's voice in such a high tone.

"Look's like I'll have to do it myself." Mokuba's eyes rolled as Seto squeaked his disgust which sent Noah into an even deeper fit of laughter. He closed his eyes and changed several digits of the script around. "There that's better." Seto now spoke in an exact copy of his brother's voice.

Noah stopped his laughing and wiped away the joyful tears. "That cloaking programme is amazing, there's no way father will be able to tell that it's hiding me beneath it."

"That's because you won't be hiding underneath it." Mokuba sneered before he transformed back in to Seto. "I will."

"What?!" The younger stepbrother was surprised as Seto's revelation didn't match up with the plan that had been discussed. "You can't go changing the plan now, how is Mokuba to know what's going on?"

"You can explain the new plan to him." Seto said as he brought up all of the nearby security cameras to watch for Mokuba and the impostor's arrival.

"How can I explain to him something that I don't even know myself?!" Noah exclaimed angrily not giving his stepbrother chance to justify himself.

"When they arrive here, in the building, Mokuba will make sure that they enter the correct pods to transfer Gozaburo here, into this system and as you know, Mokuba's pod is disconnected so that there is no danger of him ending up here also. I will remain here disguised as Mokuba, no doubt the old man will still be cloaked as myself, so that gives you time to enter my body through his connection and fill Mokuba in on the changes to the plan."

"You're trusting me in your body?"

"Don't interrupt!" Seto snapped as he didn't want to have to explain things a second time round to the green haired boy. Ignoring Noah's question he continued; "When you've explained things to Mokuba the connection from the first pod is to be disconnected and the second pod connected for you to then return back here where I will have then defeated Gozaburo once and for all. The change of pod connection is simply to confuse the old man should he try escaping from me, and once you are back inside I will flee the system and then delete _everything_ that is left behind."

Noah nodded to confirm that he understood what had been told. Hearing Seto talk about how close that his deletion now was unsettled him slightly, but Noah knew that it would happen to him sooner or later and once his two stepbrother's had been reunited he didn't care that much about his own fate; he had nothing left to live for. The thing that bothered him the most was just how much Seto's plan had changed from the original one they had explained to Mokuba. "Why not just escape as planed? Why are you going through all this extra hassle with the second pod?"

There was no answer as Seto continued to type away searching through the security cameras. "Don't risk everything you have just to be able to confront father one last time." Noah told him knowing that his stepbrother's stubbornness was the cause of the reason for making him want that final showdown. Still there was no reply. "Damn your foolish pride Seto!"

"This has nothing to do with my pride." _Well, maybe just a little bit but it's greatly overshadowed. _

"Then why are you doing this?" Noah was extremely frustrated with always being kept in the dark. Again he was met with nothing but silence. What was the point in placing himself into Seto's body for the short period of time that could be have been avoided otherwise? And why was his stepbrother willingly allowing him to do so in the first place? How was Mokuba going to react when he found out that the plan had altered? "Mokuba?" he whispered out loud. "You're doing this for your brother aren't you? So that he and I can say goodbye to each other one last time?"

_Yeah, that's it._ Seto told himself. _I'm doing this for my brother._

"Thank you, Seto. He'll appreciate that, as do I."

A limo parked up just outside the building and the two Kaiba brothers stepped out to enter and make their way to where the virtual pods were waiting. "It's show time." Seto said as he prepared himself with the disguise he had created and smiled proudly. _I'm doing this for my brother._


	13. Chapter 13

**:)**

**Chapter Thirteen**

_Stay strong; stay strong, for Seto's sake. _Mokuba had continued to chant to himself during the journey from the Kaiba Corp building across town to the warehouse that stored all of his brother's company's prototypes, and even now as he stood behind the controls of the virtual pod system he still repeated the phrase over in his mind. His stomach flipped with nerves and prayed that Seto's plan would work as he glanced over to his brother's body that was still under the control of their stepfather. "This thing's ready to start any moment now Seto, so we better get into the pods." He said with more forced cheeriness as he left the controls behind him and headed for his pod.

Kaiba's gaze was fixed upon the dark haired boy who now sat inside one of the virtual pods and about to place his headset on. Something wasn't right, surely after the recent events his youngest stepson wouldn't be so keen to want to enter _another_ virtual world, even if it was to play computer games. "I don't think this is such a good idea Mokuba."

"What?!" _No! I've come too far now for you to ruin everything._

The surprised look he saw on Mokuba's face told Gozaburo that the boy hadn't been expecting that kind of comment, indeed something wasn't quite what it seemed. "Aren't you scared after what happened to us yesterday?"

"Yes." Mokuba replied truthfully before he had the chance to realise that the word had left his lips. _Stay strong; stay strong, for Seto's sake. _"But I know that it's not possible for any of _them_ to get at us now, and if _he_ did then you'd be there protecting me from that evil bastard." Still his brother's cold blue eyes were fixed tightly on him and Mokuba slowly began to remove his headset. "I understand if you're scared though Seto."

"Who's scared?!" An angry roar erupted from Kaiba's mouth. _You're getting paranoid you old fool, this child only wants to play, there's nothing threatening about the situation. _Gozaburo saw the shaken look on the young boy's face before he turned away to enter his own pod. First he'd make his boy content and then he'd show no mercy towards him. _I'll show you who's an evil bastard my boy, once I've finished with you, you won't be able to so much as breathe without some part of your body causing you pain. _The headset was slammed on and Gozaburo waited to be transferred into the game's system.

Mokuba's hands shook as he placed his own headset back on which seemed to cause the sound of his racing heart to increase inside his ears. _I've done my part Seto, now it's your turn._

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It took just a couple of seconds to upload Gozaburo's mind into the virtual pod system and the old man now found himself alone in vast emptiness. He glanced down at himself to see that he still took his stepson's appearance thanks to the cloaking disguise he had attached to his data before fleeing his virtual world. When the other boy arrived he'd still be completely unaware of everything that had taken place between his brother and himself, so maybe it would be a 'nice' surprise if he revealed his true form? The twisted smile was on Kaiba's face once again. To rape the innocent whilst he was happy or scared, the decision was now too hard to make, but one thing for sure was that he'd do it there in cyberspace before they returned to the real world for round two.

Mokuba slowly came into focus and joined his big brother in the emptiness. "Aww man, the game hasn't finished loading yet!" He complained as he looked around them and then smile up at Kaiba. "Let's play chess while we wait."

The two brothers stood opposite each other as a huge raised table and chess board materialised in front of them. One by one each piece appeared on their designated squares and the game was ready to start. "You go first bro." Mokuba insisted but received a blank look back from Kaiba. "What's wrong, don't you want to play chess?" There was no reply and the game vanished.

"I've got some things that I need to tell you little brother, and I don't think you're going to like them." Kaiba smirked as Gozaburo waited excitedly to see the shocked look cross the boy's face as pixel by pixel the disguise he wore fell apart from the youthful boy to reveal his true form.

"Gozaburo!"

"That's right you runt." He laughed at Mokuba who seemed genuinely surprised, though Gozaburo could have swore he detected a slight trace of sarcasm in the boy's voice. _Don't let the paranoia get you again. _"I switched places with your brother during our duel to escape from the virtual world, leaving him behind to perish on the doomed sea-base."

"Tell me something I don't know old man." Mokuba sneered and he too dissolved to reveal a very smug Seto standing in his place. "Surprise stepfather."

"Seto!" Gozaburo exclaimed in horror of seeing his eldest stepson stood before him. _I knew I wasn't being paranoid!_ "Impossible, how did you escape?"

"You should have taken better care of your offspring."

"Noah." The old man growled through gritted teeth. "Where is he?"

"Somewhere you can't reach him." Seto's deep blue eyes narrowed dangerously on his stepfather. "Its judgement day Gozaburo, and you're not going to be able to escape punishment for everything you've ever done to me and my brother."

"I've never laid a finger on Mokuba." Gozaburo glared back into the cold icy stare of his stepson.

_And that's the way it's going to stay. _Seto told himself as a smirk crept onto his face. "Who said anything about Mokuba?"

_What?!_ Less than two days ago, when Gozaburo fled the virtual world, he had left behind two boys who hated each other beyond all things imaginable so how on earth had they bonded so well during that time? From the way his stepson had spoken it seemed that Noah at least, as Seto wasn't the kind to share _any_ kind of personal information, had spoken up of the abuse suffered at his hands. Could it be that their hatred of him is what united them? No, it had to be something else. But what else could have prompted the boy before him to acknowledge the other as his own brother?

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Mokuba waited impatiently beside the virtual pod where his brother's body remained motionless. _Come on bro, it shouldn't take you this long to get back to your body. _He leaned in closer to check that Gozaburo hadn't somehow messed up any of the connections and jumped at the sight of Kaiba's eyes springing wide open.

"It's okay Mokuba." Kaiba said as he saw the younger boy back away with a startled look on his face.

"Seto, you're back!" Mokuba exclaimed happily and raced back over to hug his brother as he stepped out from the pod.

"Not quite." Kaiba frowned and the younger brother pulled away in confusion. "It's Noah."

"Noah?" Mokuba almost cried at hearing that it wasn't his brother after all. "Something's gone wrong hasn't it? What happened? Where's Seto?"

"Your brother's fine Mokuba, there's just been a slight change of plan."

"What kind of change?"

"We have to get the other pod connected up so that Seto can use it to escape from father that way instead."

"Why? What was wrong with the old plan?"

"There was nothing wrong with the old plan." Noah sighed as he tried to calm the distressed boy. "But you know Seto he………."

"He's confronting him isn't he?" Mokuba butted in and saw his brother sigh sadly which meant that he probably was. "He should have learnt from last time, look what happened then!" the younger boy grabbed hold of Kaiba's white coat and shook him. "He knows, Gozaburo knows that you've both returned."

Noah carefully eased Mokuba from him. "That's not possible. If father had known there's no way he would have gone ahead with any of this."

"But he did stall to try and stop our plan from going ahead a number of times, and why else would he ask me how much I love Seto?"

Kaiba's face drained of colour and his eyes dilated as Noah asked; "Did he do anything to hurt you?" he saw the younger boy shake his head. "Don't worry Mokuba, father doesn't know."

"How do you know?"

"I just do." Noah growled in Kaiba's voice and Mokuba fell silent. "Seto changed the plan for a different reason, one he's not fond to admit. He wants to give us both the chance to say our goodbyes before…………"

"My brother's a self righteous jerk!" Mokuba stated angrily before his lips trembled and the rest of his words became sobs. "I've already said my goodbyes to you twice Noah and I can't do it again. I know Seto is going to delete you when he wipes the system's data and there's nothing that I can do to change that." He broke down into showers of tears. "I can't believe that he would do this to us both."

"Mokuba please don't be sad for me." Kaiba's voice was a whisper as Noah attempted to assure his stepbrother that it was time for him to move on.

Pulling away from his brother, Mokuba dried his eyes and fought back the rest of his tears. "I'll have to go and get some tools to connect the pod." His teary eyes looked up towards Noah and his mouth quivered before he raced off out of the room.

Noah approached the virtual pods' main controls and tried to bring up what was happening inside the programme to no avail. _Damn you Seto! _He smashed a fist down hard onto the console and stared hard at the screen that reflected back Seto's face. It would be so easy for him to just stay where he was, inside his stepbrother's body, and live out the life that had been snatched away from him all those years ago. Noah looked deeper into the sapphire blue eyes staring back at him. _I'm sorry brother, but this is the way it has to be. _He hated to see Mokuba cry and wanted to make him stop.


	14. Chapter 14

**WARNING: ****My Beta reader was disturbed by the flashback scene in the chapter so I felt it only fair to warn you all that ahead lies child abuse and rape.**

**Chapter Fourteen**

It had been four years since the old man's 'unfortunate accident' that had released Seto from the nightmare he had foolishly imprisoned himself in since winning the chess game at the orphanage, and he planned to be victorious against his stepfather once more. When the old man lost to him this time that was it, he'd finally stay down, there would be no more returns; Gozaburo had used that ticket already.

"Let's settle this in an all out brawl." Seto stated. This time there was no need for chess boards, dueldisks, or company shares. "Anything goes, last one standing gets to keep my life and everything that goes with it."

"That's fine by me." Gozaburo sneered at his overconfident stepson. "I hope you're ready to lose Seto."

"In your dreams old man." Seto struck out with his clenched fist and hit his stepfather square in the jaw. So this was what it came down to; no strategy, no thinking, just plain old instincts fuelled by emotions that had been stored and suppressed over time. "That one's from me, and this one's for Noah." He struck out at the old man's face again and sent Gozaburo toppling down to the ground. _That was easy; perhaps a little too easy?_

Seto waited cautiously for the old man to get back to his feet before attacking him again. Just as his fist was about to collide with Gozaburo's face once more, his stepfather disappeared from in front of him, leaving Seto to swing out at nothing. He staggered slightly but quickly regained his balance and turned to see the old man stood several feet behind him. Seto had seen Noah disappear and re-appear a couple of times before, yet this was not something he himself had learnt or been explained how to do. _Damn!_

"What's wrong Seto?" Gozaburo sneered as he saw the startled expression on his stepson's face. "You look so surprised by my move despite the fact that _you _yourself declared 'anything goes'."

"Nothing surprises me when it comes to you old man."

"Is that so?" Gozaburo laughed as his eyes narrowed on the boy who he then sent flying backwards and slammed hard against a wall which materialised from nowhere.

Pain surged through Seto who curse at the stupidity of ever creating the emotion-recreate programming that he used on all of his company's products, which was one of the things that kept Kaiba Corp ahead of it competitors in the business field. He slid all the way down to the ground as he kept his view fixed on his stepfather. The old man clearly knew how do manipulate the programme in ways that he didn't, giving Gozaburo an advantage that Seto knew he'd have to disable and fast.

"You're a fool Seto. The time you've had to develop your physical strength over the years would have given you a huge advantage if we had been fighting in the real world." The old man paced speedily towards his slumped stepson glaring down at him in amusement. "But we're not in the real world now boy."

Seto quickly got back to his feet but soon found himself slammed against another wall as he struck out at his stepfather again. _Time to change tactics._ He had been hoping to completely thrash out against Gozaburo to get the revenge that he and Noah deserved to have, but he also knew that things currently weren't in his favour and that he'd be foolish to risk them getting any worse with the stakes that were on the line. Deleting his stepfather's data would end it all now and probably be his best course of action as it was one of the few things he knew he'd be able to do in the virtual surroundings. As he focused on his stepfather's data and attempted to remove several of the script's digits, a stream of electrical energy raged through him, causing an unbearable amount of pain.

"Looks like you came across my shielding programme." Gozaburo laughed at the sight of his stepson flail from the unexpected shock. "You've spent less than forty-eight hours in cyberspace, so what chance do you have against _I_ who have spent the last four years like this?"

Not wanting to admit it but the old man did have a point. Seto was too inexperienced within the controls of the virtual world to be able to turn things back around in his favour. "I won't be defeated by you Gozaburo." He pushed himself back on to his feet and swayed slightly as he regained his balance by overcoming the painful tingling sensation that still ran through him. As soon as Mokuba had connected the second pod then Noah would return, _that _would be his chance to escape and finally leave the past behind him, all he had to do was stand off against his stepfather until that time.

Using the strongly present anger and hatred, Seto clenched his fists and leapt out at his stepfather again, determined to hit the old man many more times before the time came for him to flee the system. Again Gozaburo disappeared from in front of him and Seto continued straight onwards to fall flat on his face. His hands were ready to push himself up when suddenly they were snatched away and clasped behind his back before Seto felt his stepfather's knee between his shoulder blades that kept him pinned down where he was. Now he began to panic and tried to calm himself to be able to remove the cuff data that had been used to bind his wrists together, but had his concentration broken as his hair was grabbed tightly causing his head to be pulled back into an uncomfortable and painful position.

"Now this brings back memories, eh boy?" Gozaburo chortled as he pulled even harder on Seto's hair, all the combined pain bringing tears to the furious blue eyes. "It seems like only yesterday that I first dominated you." He took great pleasure at both seeing and feeling his stepson squirm in his grasp from mentioning the traumatic experience. "I see you haven't forgotten either."

_# Seto knocked on the huge wooden door of his stepfather's office, rechecking through the papers that he held in his hands for one last time to make sure that any and all mistakes had been corrected. He'd just spent the past six hours cooped up with his stepfather's pug-faced servant Hobson, as he struggled to complete the tasks that had been set for him and now it was time to turn in his efforts. Gozaburo's voice was muffled by the door, and having been confirmed entrance clearance, Seto pushed it open to enter inside, the cuts on the back of his hands stinging from the pressure felt by the action._

"_Finished already have you?" Gozaburo sounded surprised at seeing the young boy so soon, he was quite sure that it would have taken his stepson all day, perhaps even into the night for him to complete the advanced study schedule that had been set._

"_Yes sir." Seto bowed his head as he approached the desk and held out the papers before him for the old man to read. The cuts on the back of his hands were visible for his stepfather to see._

"_Slacking again eh?"_

_There was no reply as Seto bit on his tongue to stop himself from answering. He never slacked at anything though Hobson clearly disagreed about the issue and would find whatever chance he could to use the old fashioned cane on him. If this was the price that had to be paid in order to keep him and Mokuba together and away from the orphanage then so be it. His eyes wandered a quick glance at his stepfather who was busy reading through the pages of written text._

_It had been a number of months now and although Gozaburo clearly resented having to adopt the two boys, as promised, Seto got along pretty well with the old man, when it suited them both. Yes he was made to excel in his studies which kept him apart from his little brother quite often and the punishments he had to endure could be vigorous at times, but still things weren't that bad for the pair of them. _

"_Seto, spell haemorrhagic." Gozaburo ordered as he continued to stare at the papers in front of him._

"_H-A-E-M-O-R-R-H-A-G-I-C." Seto reeled out the answer and was pretty pleased with himself as most kids his age didn't know the word's meaning let alone spelling._

"_If you know how to spell it out loud then you should have been able to spell it correctly on paper!" _

_The piece was thrown back at him and Seto glanced down to see the typo he had missed. His heart sank as he knew that a punishment would soon be coming his way and the chance of spending time with Mokuba to play Duel Monsters later that evening would also be taken from him._

"_But I'm willing to overlook it, just this once."_

"_Thank you sir." Seto bowed his gratitude to his stepfather who smiled at him from behind the desk. There'd be no punishment and he'd get to play with his little brother after all. "I can assure you that I'll try harder in the future so that it won't happen again."_

"_Everything comes at a price though my son." Gozaburo added to let the young boy know that he wasn't going to escape his punishment that easily. He rose from his seat and made his way around to the other side of his desk._

_Son? Seto blinked in amazement. That had been the first time that his stepfather had ever referred to him in that way, usually it was by his name, junior or simply 'boy' but never had it been son. Had the old man come to accept the two orphans as his own? Two arms were gently and affectionately placed on either side of Seto's shoulders as Gozaburo looked down at him and asked; "How much do you love your father Seto?"_

_Father? That was it, he didn't need anymore proof; Seto had finally found that sense of belonging that he'd been hoping to regain since the deaths of his parents. He looked up at the old man, - his father, and replied: "I'll be forever grateful that you adopted my brother and I …" But Seto never got the chance to finish his sentence as he was thrown hard towards the CEO's desk, winding him upon impact as his body slammed against its edge._

_Seto's mind raced with confusion of the sudden change of situation. One moment Gozaburo had been kind towards him and then like a flick of a switch had flung him away. He pushed himself up and struggled to breath from the pain in his battered ribcage only to find himself forced back down onto the desk top as his body was bent over the side, feet dangling just inches above the floor and Gozaburo's hand pinning him there as it rest between his shoulder blades. _

"_I'm sorry." Seto wheezed now convinced that he was indeed being punished for the error he had made in his work. But did one little mistake really justify the physical pain he was suffering right now? Why not just confiscate more of his possessions, or be made to rewrite and extend the work he'd just finished, even doing the servants chores, surely they were all more fitting punishments for the tiny mistake he had made? "I promise that I won't hand you any more papers until I've rechecked every single letter of my work."_

"_This is about so much more than just a spelling mistake my boy." Gozaburo sneered as he pushed harder onto Seto's upper back making the boy whimper from the force of the pain. "This is the price you'll pay for humiliating me in that flee-ridden orphanage."_

_So that was why he was being punished, all because he had taken and won the risk to get a better life for himself and Mokuba. Tears stung at his eyes from his own foolishness for having thought that they had found a place amongst a family to call their own. How could his stepfather have been so cruel to build up his hopes and abuse them like that?_

_The pressure on Seto's back was lifted as Gozaburo's hands now fumbled at the waistband of his pants. The boy attempted to push himself up to escape and was struck across the back of his head. "You stay exactly where you are and I'll go easy on you, failure to do so and you'll wish you hadn't been born." He hissed threateningly._

_Fear of what kind of worse punishment would be awaiting him caused Seto to obey what he had been told as his pants and underwear were stripped down to his ankles, the cool air of the room could be felt against his naked flesh. His ears were filled with the sound of his frightened heart and could just make out the tingling sound of his stepfather's belt which he assumed would soon be striking over his bare behind like it had done many times before. _

_Trying to take his mind from the situation Seto thought about teaching his little brother how to play Duel Monsters later on that evening, if he was still allowed to that was. He pictured a confused look on Mokuba's face as he explained about the rules of the….._

"_Aarghh!" He cried out in pain, but not from the belt blow like he had been expecting. Instead the CEO had forced his erect member into the small opening of Seto's rear. _

"_Did that hurt?" Gozaburo asked sarcastically and thrust hard to make the boy cry out again. "This is the price you will pay during the time you spend living under my roof, you pathetic nobody!"_

_Tears fell from the big blue eyes and sobs escaped his lips with each thrust that followed to the rhythm of his stepfather's immoral act. If Seto had known that this was to be the price for winning the chess game then he'd never have challenged the old man in the first place. But what had been done now couldn't be undone so he would suffer and learn to endure it, not for his sake, but for Mokuba's. # _


	15. Chapter 15

**Let's bring this fight to an end shall we? **

**:)**

**Chapter Fifteen**

The memory was now fresh in Seto's mind and he forced it back into the shadowy depths where he had banished it to all those years ago. "I've put that behind me Gozaburo, your pathetic attempt to mess with my head won't work." He managed to delete the data for the cuffs binding his wrists only for them to be reapplied less than a split second later, this time the script coding for them was twice as complex.

"Ha!" Gozaburo laughed not believing for one second that the mention of their first time hadn't just disturbed the boy. He pulled harder on the hair that was already tightly clasped in his fingers, hoping that the pain would cause the watery eyes to overflow but they didn't. "You know Seto; I noticed that you never once cried during all the times after, why was that?"

"I got strong." Seto hissed through clenched teeth, his neck felt like it was about to snap even though he knew it couldn't. "Nothing you did fazed me after that and not once have I shed tears since that day."

"So you never cried again, _ever_?"

"No."

"Liar." Gozaburo sneered as he bent closer to his stepson's restrained face. "I used to watch you stand on your balcony each night as you'd cry your little heart out, look up to the heavens and beg the angels to send someone to save you." Seto stared hard at his stepfather's amused face. "You must have been so relieved when I had my _'accident'_."

"They failed me on that too." A wide smirk appeared on Seto lips. "That's why _I_ had to push you."

Outraged by the boy's smartass remark, Gozaburo threw his stepson's head forward so that it collided hard with the ground. He'd never forget the smug look on Seto's face. The boy had finally been pushed too far and snapped, lashing out to cause him to fall through the window of his office and down to his death twenty storeys below. How the boy had escaped a murder conviction he'd never know. "Where did you say Noah was?"

"I didn't." Seto groaned from the pain of having his face smashed. _What's taking you so long Noah? _There was a sharp jab on the back of his head as Gozaburo demanded more information out of him. "I lost the little brat on the internet."

"You're lying to me again boy. There's no way you'd have gone to all this trouble seeking revenge for him if he wasn't close by." Gozaburo closed his eyes as he searched the data inside the programme but found no sign of his son. He checked the link relaying back to the young CEO's body in case Noah had escaped from the system that way but his vessel was still attached in the pod at the other end. _Looks like you were telling the truth. _"Why did you two become best buddies all of a sudden?" he asked as he now glared down at Seto still pinned tightly beneath him.

_For reasons you'll never understand. _Seto's mind retorted as he removed the cuff data again only for it to replace itself for a second time. He had to somehow get his stepfather off him as the memory of the abuse had shaken him more than what he was willing to admit to himself. Again Seto tried to delete the old man, causing more pain to surge through him as he lay there helpless and unable to do anything.

An evil amused chortled erupted from Gozaburo as he knew that he had regained the power balance over his stepson who despite the fact that he tried to hide it from him, was clearly frightened. "How about it Seto?" he leaned closer towards the scruffy mass of brown hair applying more pressure between the boy's shoulder blades as he whispered in his ear. "You and I, one last time?"

Seto's eyes grew wide from hearing the suggestion.He wouldn't allow his stepfather to disgrace him again in that manner._ Get off me! _Curling both his legs forcefully he hit Gozaburo hard in the back with his heels, causing the old man to fall from him and Seto wasted no time as he struggled to get to his feet with his hands still tied behind him.

Brown eyes burned with anger as Gozaburo glared at the boy for putting up the resistance and conjured up some more restraints that wrapped themselves around Seto's ankles causing him to topple over. "You'll wish that you hadn't done that boy!" Gozaburo roared as he got to his feet and kicked out to strike his stepson in the lower regions.

The pain made Seto yelp and his eyes finally gushed as he doubled up into the fetal position, his will now starting to falter from being so vulnerable. Too much time seemed to have passed for Noah's return and he feared that the temptation had been too great for his stepbrother to resist having a second chance at life in his body. There would be no escaping from his stepfather this time as he felt himself forced onto his back and Gozaburo straddled on top of him.

"I lied about Mokuba." Gozaburo sneered. He intended to break his stepson completely this time, soon there would be no more resistance and he would be victorious over the boy. "_I_ had him, _your_ brother, in _your_ office, using _your_ body."

_That's not true. _Seto tried to convince himself as doubt entered his mind, the old man was simply changing tactics to overcome him. "You're bluffing."

"You should know by now that I _never_ bluff."

Hatred burned in Seto's eyes as he held back the anger building up inside him from the uncertainties that continued to mount. His stepfather had to have been lying, the old man loved to taunt his opposition. Seto knew he wouldn't be able to handle the claim which could quite possibly have been the truth as he wasn't there to protect Mokuba from this monster. And it was true; Gozaburo Kaiba _never_ bluffed. The hold broke and Seto's rage prompted him to attack his stepfather's data once again.

Gozaburo disappeared from on top of his victim and reappeared at a safe distance several feet away as he gleefully watched the electrical energy surge through Seto's form. The foolish boy was only causing himself more pain; there would be no way that his stepson would be able to break through his shielding programme. "Admit it Seto, you've been defeated."

_No. _Seto told himself as he continued to try and delete his stepfather, but the pain became too much to bear and he stopped, eyes glazed with thoughts of Mokuba and Noah. _I'm sorry little brother, that traitor had better take good care of you. _ He turned away from his stepfather and braced himself for what was yet to come, thankful that his flowing white coat provided a shield to hide the silent tears that fell as it was thrown up over his head.

"Who's superior now eh?" Gozaburo continued to taunt his stepson as he struggled to undo the belt around Seto's waist. "Where's that angel of yours Seto?"

"Right here!" A familiar sounding voice boomed out followed by a powerful blast that sent the old man reeling backwards and far away from his stepson.

Seto's head had also been unveiled by the blast and he looked up with sore eyes to see his stepbrother standing before him. "Noah." He gasped quietly, relieved and happy to see the green haired boy. _You didn't deceive me._

"Mokuba's fine Seto, _he_ didn't get the chance to carry out his intentions." Noah stated as his gaze was still firmly fixed on his father. The look in his eyes was the same one Seto had seen back in the virtual world when Noah had confronted him as the red flame monster, the look of someone who had been pushed too far and had finally had enough. "Out smarted by a child, that's the story of your existence, isn't it father?" He smirked.

Gozaburo's eyes narrowed dangerously on his son for the remark made. "You dare to betray me?"

"No father." Noah remained firm with his posture yet his voice began to waver and was full of sorrow. "_You_ let your hatred control and consume you to the point where _you_ were willing to abuse anyone nearby whether they were company competitors, employees, friends or family; all for the sake of gaining whatever power you could. _You_ crushed them all using whatever means _you_ desired regardless of consequences for any of them. _You _took pleasure with other people's misery to compensate your own. _You _are the one who betrayed yourself."

Unable to do anything with his hands and feet still tightly bound together Seto couldn't do much else except stare up at his stepbrother who clearly still cared for the old man. _Face it kid, some people are just born evil, stop trying to make exceptions for him._

"Look at yourself father!" Noah continued now with pleading in his voice. "_Look _at what you've become. This isn't you; this _isn't_ the father that I remember. My father was a caring man, one who was willing to sacrifice his life in order to protect the ones he loved; the same one who built the virtual world for me because he couldn't bear to let me go."

Seto watched his stepbrother's firm stand began to crumble as tears built up in Noah's eyes, fists clenched tightly as he struggled to keep them from overflowing. _Don't let him see you cry, that only makes him stronger._

"Even after the things you did to me, I was willing to forgive you." Noah's firm stance and voice were both regained. "But not anymore. I foolishly accepted the fact that you had hurt me because I reminded you of mother and that was why I was made to suffer, as you lashed out your anger on me for the hurt she had caused you from having the affair. Well I'm not her and I _didn't_ deserve any of it. You even said so yourself back on the yacht, making me believe your fake remorse for the crime you had committed and I would have continued to believe had you not re-offended that same crime." He stared coldly at his father and took several steps to position himself between the two of them. "It stops now, let Seto go."

"You're choosing him over me?!" Gozaburo roared in anger. Whatever happened to family loyalty like that he had seen displayed between his stepsons as they took away his company?

"No father."

"Then stand aside so that I can reclaim everything that was stolen from me!"

The quote rang inside Noah's head and he realised just how close he had come to turning down the same route that his father had taken. In his virtual world _he_ had become used to controlling the situations of others' lives and even taken pleasure from seeing their misfortunes. _He_ had sought revenge against his stepbrother for the company that he though as rightfully his, which had been born out of the hatred passed to him from his father's influence. _He_ had turned his stepbrothers against each other by brainwashing the youngest with lies. _He_ had deleted the lives of five people for their failure to do as he ordered and came close to destroying a whole lot more. If it hadn't have been for Mokuba's belief in him then who knows how things might have turned out? "It's over father; it's time to move on."

"But it doesn't have to be son. We can start over, new lives for both of us. Once I've taken over Seto's body again _you_ can have Mokuba's."

"No father!" Noah's voice was angered by the thought of betraying the two brothers and his narrowed blue eyes enhanced that fury with an icy stare.

Gozaburo stared back with equal amounts of anger burning in his dark brown eyes, understanding that his son was going to keep him from getting what he wanted. His vision passed right through Noah and focused on the exhausted and still bound stepson. If he was going to be taken down then so was the boy who had knocked him from his pedestal.

"You're right son, it's time to put this behind us once and for all." Gozaburo's anger disappeared and so did the restraints from his stepson.

Noah turned to see Seto glaring angrily as he got to his feet. "Just go, Mokuba needs you." He ordered the older boy who then erupted with a blaze of electrical energy, an evil maniacal laughter sounded behind the green haired boy.

Wheeling round Noah saw his father with a crazed look on his face. Gozaburo had transferred all of the energy from his shielding programme into one powerful blast that would destroy his stepson completely; he would win the battle that they had both been locked in since the chess game at the orphanage. He watched as Seto collapsed to the ground with an ear splitting painful cry and then as suddenly as his attack had started, it stopped as the loss of his shield now allowed Noah the ability to constrict him within a yellow netting of script programming that prevented him from moving and manipulating the system around them. "No!"

"Seto?" Noah asked in a panicky voice as he glanced over to him. There was no reply. "Seto?" He shouted louder but still no reply as his stepbrother lay motionless on the ground. _No._

"Ha!" Gozaburo laughed. "Your attempt to save him failed."

"Guess again, _stepfather_." Seto growled as he began to stir. He was in complete agony but he pushed himself on, he wasn't finished yet. "I'm okay kid." He told Noah as the worried boy continued to stare at him and slowly his arms pushed himself up only for them to collapse as they trembled, unable to support his weight.

More laughter erupted from Gozaburo as he watched Seto fall into unconsciousness. He attempted to break free from his son's restraints on him but failed. "How could you do this to your father Noah?" There was no answer as his son still stared down at the motionless form on the ground. What the hell was it that had made these boys bond together so well? "When I escape your hold son, I'll make sure that I destroy you _both_ once and for all."

"You just don't get it do you?" Noah's sad blue eyes now landed upon the old man. "Your time, - _our_ time, is over father. Stop trying to claw your way back into his life." Gozaburo's hateful glare was still fixed on him.

_Goodbye Seto._ Noah's mind whispered quietly as he slowly made his way over to his father._ And thank you for helping me find the strength to be able to do this._ Now that the old man's shielding programme was gone he could finally make sure that his father caused no more pain to anyone ever again. He would delete them both leaving his stepbrother behind to reclaim his body once Seto regain consciousness. His sadness caused Noah to loosen his control over the netting on Gozaburo as it faded to become transparent instead of the solid yellow it had started as.

The desperate captive snatched at the chance to reclaim his freedom and sent his son flying through the emptiness. "_Nobody_ stands in _my_ _way_ and lives to tell the tale." His eyes were like flames as Gozaburo appeared, towering over his frightened son, before he transformed into the red flame monster that represented the core of his heart.

Noah cowered away eyes scrunched shut, not wanting to see the monster advance closer to him. He felt his own data being ripped apart as Gozaburo began deleting the son he had come to hate for joining forces with his nemesis. Fear filled him with the horrible way that his existence was to be ended after he had fought so hard to save both his stepbrother and father, and felt like he had failed them both but knew that only one of them would have been thankful for his efforts.

The muffled, dying sound of the monster's roar echoed in the emptiness and still aware that his data remained unscrambled, Noah slowly opened his eyes. His view was blurred with tears at first then saw the faint mist of tiny red pixels, behind them stood a pair of black clad feet. Raising his gaze Noah looked up to see his stepbrother standing in front of him. "It's okay, he's gone. Your torment is over."

Seto received only a sad, feeble smile as thanks from his stepbrother. Now was the hard part, he'd have to return back to the real world and then delete the system containing the boy who had stood by him for the past two days. "Look kid, you said Mokuba needed me so I'm out of here." He turned to head for the link out of there and winced from the pain that each step caused him.

"Wait!" Noah called out from where he remained on the floor causing his stepbrother to turn back and face him. "Please Seto, when you return to the real world, delete the system as fast as you can." He looked up with teary blue eyes. "I don't want to be left on my own any longer than what is necessary."

"Understood." Seto nodded as he knew too well the feeling of fear that being alone could bring. He started on his way once again but then stopped as he couldn't part from Noah without him knowing how he felt. "Before I go, there's one last thing that I want to say." Now it was his turn to bare the sad, feeble smile as he looked back at the younger boy. "Thank you… _brother._"


	16. Chapter 16

**Here's the last chapter to round everything off.**

**Once again BIG 'Thank You's to all you reviewers, favers, alerters**** and lurkers, with an extra specail thanks to _Setoglomper_ for leaving me a review for each chapter. You guys are great and keep me motivated to update regularly :)**

**Chapter Sixteen**

"Noah!" Mokuba yelled as his fist smashed on the door. He tried the handle again but still it wouldn't move as something was preventing it from doing so on the other side of the door. "Noah, let me in!" _Why would he do this? Why would he stop me from helping Seto? _He continued to strike the door and shout for his stepbrother, after a couple of minutes, causing his fists and throat to become sore, the handle began to move on its own.

Despite trying his hardest to enter the room, Mokuba jumped back as the door opened and he saw his brother standing there in the doorway. "Who are you?" he demanded as he held a spanner raised in front of him ready to protect himself _if _it had been his stepfather returning for revenge against him.

"It's me Mokie, your brother, Seto."

"I don't _fucking _believe you!"

"Hey!" Seto yelled down at his little brother. "I know you're scared and confused but that's no excuse for you to use language like that. If I hear that word leave your mouth again, I'll scrub it clean with soap."

Okay, that sounded like something his brother would say, but Mokuba had to be sure that his brother was who he said he was. "Prove it to me; tell me ten things that only Seto and I would know." The spanner was still raised in front of him. Maybe ten things was too much to ask for, perhaps he should have asked only half that? Too late to change the requirements now as the older brother began his list.

"Back when we were at the orphanage, I sang _'Twinkle, twinkle, little star'_ to you each night before bed." Seto spoke out the first things that randomly entered his mind. "You have a scar on your right knee that you acquired from falling off your bike when we were kids. Every Friday after school there is _always_ a triple chocolate ice cream sundae waiting for you in my office. The majority of computer games that you own are beat 'em ups. You once tried to trick me into signing your report card as you _thought_ that I would be disappointed with you for not achieving anything above a B minus. You're scared of thunder because it reminds you of the first night of our adoption when you woke up during a storm, alone and unused to having a room of your own. On Father's day each year you sneak into my room in the early hours to cancel my alarm and then later bring me breakfast in bed. Your favourite colour is pink. Just last month, when you were ill, _I_ took the weekend off work to stay home and read you the Harry Potter books. And you think that I don't know, but every time you're angry or annoyed with me for something you stick your gum underneath my office chair." Smiling and even managing a laugh he elaborated on the last fact. "It took me over an hour one night last week to clear all of the gum away."

"It really is you." Mokuba's eyes grew big and sparkly. Not only had his brother just provided him with the proof he had asked for, but all ten bits of information had been facts involving him. The sound of metal hitting the tiled floor rang out down the corridor as he dropped the spanner from his hand and leapt into his brother's arms that where waiting for him.

"I missed you little brother." Seto whispered as he bent down so that his head rested gently on his brother's soft and unruly dark hair. A happy tear slid down his check as he silently thanked Noah for helping him to make his way back to his sole reason for living.

"I missed you too." Mokuba mumbled still clasped on tightly to his brother. "Seto?"

"Yeah?"

"My favourite colour is _fuchsia_, not pink."

"Whatever you say kiddo." Seto smiled at his brother's pickiness over the shade and squeezed him tighter. It was moments like this that he knew all the sacrifices he had ever made had been worthwhile.

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The door to his office flew open and Seto practically sprinted towards his desk, a cardboard box tucked under his arm which he placed on the desktop as he then rummaged through the drawers below. He grumbled to himself as he cursed and complained about Gozaburo having moved things around from the way that they had been, before he slammed the draws shut in frustration of not being able to find what he had been searching for.

"What are you looking for?" Mokuba asked as he lurked in the doorway. His voice was saddened by the fact that after everything that had happened over the past few days, Seto still focused on nothing but his work and hadn't spoken a word to him on their journey back from the warehouse. _I guess it was too much to hope for that the experience might have changed him for the better._

"Batteries." Seto replied as he drummed his fingers on his desk, glancing around the room for possible places that the old man could have moved them to.

"Which type?"

"The ones I had specifically made for the Dueldisk systems."

"I'll go check the stores for some."

"Thanks Mokuba."

Mokuba smiled from receiving his brother's thanks _before_ carrying out the task. _Maybe he has changed a little?_ He raced off towards the elevator to take him back down the levels to where the storerooms where located, leaving Seto alone in his office.

The box on Seto's desk that he had brought back from the warehouse with him seemed to call out to be opened and carefully he unfolded the flaps to lift out the contents. A faint smile crossed his face at the sight of the robotic monkey that he had created for duelling purposes. _What a dumb idea, no wonder I never let it progress past the prototype stage._

Seto turned the invention over in his hands and removed the panel on its back to reveal the control unit. He was surprised to see that there was already a battery in place which meant that his brother's mission hadn't been needed after all. Carefully he poked out the USB connection from the small slot beside the battery, pulled out the memory stick that he had concealed in his coat pocket and connected the two together. Next he pushed both the connection and stick back into the slot, and replaced the panel before turning the contraption on.

The LCD screen came to life as two blue eyes blinked back at him, the mouth just a straight line that began to sway as murmurs and chirps came from the speakers located in the small peak on its head. "Hang on a moment." Seto frowned and then flicked the switch on the back of the monkey's head to change the creature's sounds into words. "There that should do it."

"What's going on Seto?" The monkey spoke with Noah's voice.

"I couldn't do it." Seto confessed quietly as he averted his gaze from the bright neon stare. "I couldn't delete you Noah, not after everything we've been through together, and instead of leaving you alone, trapped inside that programme that I could have easily altered for you over time I thought…" his eyes focused back to the monkey standing on the desk. "…I thought that you deserved to be here, with your family, beside both your brothers."

The eyes displayed on Noah's LCD face began to quiver and become filled in with more blue pixels as it showed the boy's happiness from hearing Seto's words. "What made you change your mind and accept me?"

"For the same reason you accepted me." The CEO's face bore a weak, but happy, smile. "You reminded me of someone I once used to know, a long time ago. Someone who I wanted to kept hold of but was unable to." The smile grew clearer as Seto thought about how much his stepbrother reminded him of his younger self. _Except that I was never that strong._ He thought about how Noah was willing to forgive the cruelness inflicted upon him, where as he; Seto Kaiba would never been able to do such a thing.

Noah's eyes became tiny blue arches and his mouth a triangle shape as he saw the once cold, but now warm, blue eyes of his stepbrother gleam down at him. Seto reminded him so much of the man his father had once been before he had changed and become corrupt. "Thank you _Seto_."

"You're welcome _Noah_."

Neither of them spoke for several moments and then without warning, Noah leapt up and was caught by Seto who pulled the robot close to embrace him in a brotherly hug.

"Looks like we're out of those batteries bro, so I've placed an order to have more dispatched here as soon as possible." Mokuba explained as he re-entered the office and saw his brother hugging the prototype fondly. _Seto really does love his creations._

"Turns out there was one already installed." Noah was carefully placed back onto the desktop.

"No worries." Mokuba smiled as he came bouncing up to his brother's desk and leaned to have a closer look at the robotic creature. "So what'd you need the monkey for Seto?"

"Monkey?!" Noah's shriek made Mokuba jump back with surprise as the red angry faced robot turned on Seto, fists raised up at the CEO. "You turned me into a monkey?!"

"You ungrateful brat!" Seto leered back in response.

"Noah?" Mokuba gasped as he approached the desk again where his two brothers stood off against each other in a mock angered stare out. The red LCD face reverted back to the blue happy arched screen and smiled up at him. "Is that really you in there?" The younger brother asked with a shaky and joyful voice.

"The one and only."

Mokuba swiftly scooped up his tiny stepbrother and hugged him tightly; if he had been a real monkey instead of a robot then Noah would have been in danger of suffocating from the embrace. His eyes shone brightly as he looked over to his older brother who was now busy powering up his computer. "I didn't think you'd ever …"

"Call it a moment of stupidity." Seto cut across his brother's words and couldn't help but smile at seeing the two brothers laughing happily together as Mokuba danced around the room with the helpless Noah swinging by his tiny arms. "But you two have to realise that this is only temporary." His face was now serious and stern.

The dancing stopped and the happiness drained from Mokuba's face. It wasn't fair the way that Seto had shown such kindness by freeing their stepbrother only for him to then say that it wasn't going to last for very long, and knew that he should just have been grateful that this had happened. "But Seto …"

"No buts Mokuba!" Seto replied harshly and then smiled at the two puzzled faces staring at him. "Once things are a little calmer, then I can start work on designing a more _humanoid _body for Noah."

Smiles now shone on all three of the brothers' faces as Noah landed back on the desk in front of Seto. "Thank you brother." The smile on the LCD display dropped as he became a little worried and unsure of what he had said. "I _can_ call you 'brother' right?"

"Sure, why not?" Seto muttered before his fingers started hammering the keyboard. "Look you two; I have a lot of work to do since that moron screwed around with my company's systems. I really need to sort it out before some idiot tries hacking their way in, so why don't you both go and play for awhile?"

Mokuba sighed at the politely worded order. _Same old Seto._ He thought to himself before he helped Noah up onto his shoulder. "Let's go play Mario." Was his suggestion as they headed for his entertainment room next door which he spent most of his time in whilst waiting for Seto to finish work.

"I always preferred Sonic." Noah stated.

"Then let's go play Super Smash Bros Brawl, they're both in that."

"Together, in the same game?" The very thought of the two computer game characters appearing side by side when the companies who created them were, - had been bitter rivals, was completely alien to Noah. _Just like Seto and I_. "What is this world coming to?" he laughed.

Seto watched both his brothers leave his office closing the door behind them, and wished that he could go too, but knew that he had lots of hard work ahead of him which wasn't going to sort itself out. He opened several windows on his computer and ran multiple programmes as he focused on repairing the damage that Gozaburo had caused. _You lose stepfather. We're still here, both my brothers and I, stronger than you could ever imagine. This is what it means to be superior._

The office door reopened slightly so Mokuba could poke his head in through the gap. "Seto?"

"Yeah?" The CEO was still heavily engrossed with his work as he answered and continued to bash away at the keyboard.

"Is it true?"

"Is what true?"

"Do you fancy Tea?"

His fingers froze, eyes widened and heart skipped several beats with the shock of being asked the question. Slowly Seto diverted his gaze from the monitor screen in front of him to the mischievous looking younger brother now standing in the open doorway. Mokuba's face was plastered with a huge cheeky grin that was also mirrored by the robotic monkey sitting on his shoulder. The CEO's head dropped down to where it hit the palm of his hand with force and gave a frustrated sigh. _I hate you Noah!_

**END**

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**:)**

**Last chance to leave reviews and let me know what you thought of the fic.**

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Noah: Where's Seto and Mokuba?

KG: They're on vacation.

Noah: That's not fair, why aren't I allowed on vacation?

KG: Because you're helping me with my second Yugioh/Doctor Who crossover fic.

Noah: Oh yeah. (hands author pile of paper) I finished my half.

KG: (reads Noah's work and sighs) You've written yoai.

Noah: (smiles) I know isn't it great; Seto and Jack make a cute couple neh?

KG: Not going to happen. (tears up Noah's papers)

Noah: Have you checked your YouTuba account yet?

KG: No, why?

Noah: Oh, no reason. (begins to whistle and runs away)

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**I'll be back in a couple of months time :P**


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